HC Deb 17 February 1988 vol 127 cc969-70
9. Mr. Sumberg

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what proposals he has for improving the procedures for conducting public inquiries into planning applications for out-of-town shopping centres; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Waldegrave

We are developing ways of grouping applications and staging inquiries into such schemes in Greater Manchester and elsewhere. New rules of procedure for inquiries and a code of practice for major inquiries produced in response to the Select Committee will both be relevant to large out-of-town schemes.

Mr. Sumberg

Is my hon. Friend aware that one of his inspectors is currently conducting an inquiry into a massive shopping development on the Prestwich hospital site in my constituency? Will he make it abundantly clear to that inspector that the plan is opposed by a vast number of my constituents both on environmental grounds and because it will have a terrible effect on existing shopping facilities?

Mr. Waldegrave

My hon. Friend has made his own view very clear to the inquiry and the inspector and has made representations to the Department, which have, of course, been passed on to the inquiry. It would be wrong for me to comment on a proposal that is now the subject of a public inquiry.

Mr. Eastham

Is it not irresponsible for developers to build massive developments outside established cities and towns that destroy shopping inside the cities? Thousands of jobs will be lost as a consequence of the greed of those who build out-of-town shopping centres that are not required.

Mr. Waldegrave

It is not a matter of greed; it is a matter of the customers wanting them. The centres would not be built if there were not people who wanted to shop in them.

Mr. Sims

Is my hon. Friend aware that the council of the London borough of Bromley and a number of local organisations are involved in considerable expenditure and a great deal of work in preparing their case for the public hearing in June of an appeal against an application for the development of an enormous leisure and shopping centre right in the middle of the green belt at Hewitt's farm? It would quite out of the question to allow this application, which would run contrary to all the policies laid down by my hon. Friend and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. Would it not save a great deal of time and trouble if my hon. Friend were to make it clear straight away that such an application for a development in the green belt land is simply not admissible?

Mr. Waldegrave

My hon. Friend will probably know that we recently re-issued our advice on large shopping developments, in green belt land and made it clear that it was very unlikely that any such applications would be approved.

Mr. Flannery

Is the Minister aware that at the very centre of my constituency, called the Hillsborough centre, we now have major developments, with large numbers of small shops standing empty? Some of them are being taken over not by shopkeepers but by building societies and the like and people are writing to me about it. Is is not a fact that that is happening in cities everywhere and causing dereliction, and that people who have shopped in the centres of cities all their lives are now having to go outside to do their shopping? Is that sensible? It is inhuman.

Mr. Waldegrave

I do not imagine that the building societies would be providing offices unless they were being used by customers. They must be serving someone. It is right that it is a material consideration in a planning inquiry or decision that the effects on local centres should be taken into account when new developments are being proposed.