§ Mr. Michael Jopling (Westmorland and Lonsdale)It is a great honour for me to present a petition to the House. Perhaps I may be permitted to read it:
To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland assembled.The Humble Petition of the many residents of and visitors to our small town of Ambleside in the heart of the Lake District National Park, which is associated with a petition numbering in total 11,721, of whom 3,060 are constituents of The Lakes ParishShewethThat it supports the Lake District National Park Special Planning Board in its decision to reject proposals for the redevelopment as shops of the old Bus Station in the centre of Ambleside on the grounds that it is over-development of a most sensitive site, lacks any bus station facilities, has insufficient car parking spaces, inadequate delivery arrangements, would generate traffic hazards and exacerbate already chronic traffic congestion in the town. Further, that it seeks to achieve a solution of this protracted problem which satisfies the people of Ambleside and its elected representatives and protects the purposes for which the National Park was founded.Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your honourable House will urge the Secretary of State for the Environment to use the powers granted to him by Parliament to call in the plans for his own decision, or in any case to refuse the appeal, in the hope that he will take account of the overwhelming local and national opinion raised against this redevelopment.And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.Thank you, Madam Speaker, for allowing me the opportunity of presenting this petition, which is hugely important to many of my constituents and many people who have a huge love of the Lake district, who see the development as a major threat to one of the jewels of England.
§ To lie upon the Table.