§ (" .—(1) The Minister (as respects England) and the National Assembly for Wales (as respects Wales) shall, in respect of every management plan which they receive, publish a response within six months setting out—
- (a) the steps which the Minister or the Assembly intend to take to further the objectives in that management plan; and
- (b) the extent to which the policies of the Minister or the Assembly may conflict with that management plan, and the steps which are to be taken to resolve that conflict.
§
(2) In this section—
management plan" means a plan published in accordance with—
- (a) section 82, or
- (b) section 66 of the Environment Act 1995; and.
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, I cannot say that I have quite the same satisfaction with the Minister's reply. He said that he did not see how my amendment, which provides that Ministers would have to reply to management plans within six months, would help or improve the process. I cannot believe that he really thinks that.
§ An individual may have spent a lot of money and time working to improve a management plan, perhaps having consulted with the Countryside Agency, the NFU or MAFF in the process. Having finally sent the plan, he then receives a card from the Minister (as I did recently) saying, "Thank you. The contents have been noted". That is not satisfactory. That seems common sense.
§ Under the circumstances, given the late hour, I do not wish to take the matter further now. However, I shall return to the issue at Third Reading.
§ [Amendment No. 249A not moved.]
§ Clause 84 [Grants to conservation boards]:
§ [Amendments Nos. 250 to 251 not moved.]
§ Clause 85 [Interpretation of Part IV and supplementary provision]:
§
Lord Whitty moved Amendments Nos. 252 and 253:
Page 59, line 27, leave out ("Act") and insert ("Part"). Before Clause 87, insert the following new clause—
§ ("Local access forums