§ 78. Mr. Benyonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he proposes to take to speed up the preparation of structure plans by local authorities.
§ Mr. Graham PageThe substantive structure and local plan provisions are to be brought into operation by a series of commencement orders applying Part I to the areas named in them.
103WThe first such order has now been made for the Tees-side area; containing the Tees-side county borough and certain adjoining areas of the administrative counties of Durham and the North Riding of Yorkshire named in the order. Further commencement orders, bringing Part I formally into operation in other areas of the country, will be made from now on, in consultation with the local planning authorities concerned.
The Structure and Local Plans Regulations made by my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for the Environment and the Secretary of State for Wales, have now been laid before Parliament. These Regulations, which apply to England outside Greater London and to Wales, deal with the content of the new plans and set out the procedures to be followed on them. A covering circular, containing a memorandum of advice and explanatory annexes on the new system of development plans has been sent to local authorities, together with a copy of the Regulations. The statement which I made on 12th May—in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Londonderry (Mr. Chichester-Clark); [Vol. 817, c. 106–8]— about the forward structure plan programme in England recorded that local planning authorities responsible for over three-quarters of the area of England, and a number of authorities in Wales, would now be involved in discussions and work on structure plan preparation.
The measures I am announcing will now enable authorities to proceed with the formal implementing of Part 1 of the 1968 Act. In doing so, they will be able to build on the very considerable amount of preparatory work, already undertaken in many parts of England and Wales, which has included discussions with the Department and the Welsh Office about the arrangements necessary for accelerating the change-over to the new system. Now that Part I of the 1968 Act can be brought formally into operation and full advice is available to local planning authorities on the procedure for preparing and submitting structure plans, I hope that any authority invited to prepare a structure plan for their area who foresee difficulties in doing so within an acceptable time scale, will not hesitate to discuss the situation with the Department or the Welsh Office.