§ Mr. Chapmanasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will now make a statement about possible changes in the classification of agricultural land.
31W
§ Mr. WigginI believe that the time has come to consider a minor but important change to the agricultural land classification maps.
These have been progressively brought into use since 1968 and now cover the whole of England and Wales. They illustrate clearly and simply the intrinsic quality of agricultural land in five grades, grade 1 being the best and grade 5 the worst, and are necessary tools for planners, developers, local authorities, Government Departments and many other organisations concerned with land use planning. They have proved extremely useful in putting into effect the Government's policy that developments involving agricultural land should take place on the lower quality rather than the higher quality land in any given area.
Experience has shown that the five grade notation is open to one serious criticism; this is that almost half the agricultural land in England and Wales is shown as grade 3. Grade 3 land is often very productive agricultural land with a large number of farming uses, yet many people believe that grade 3 implies that it is third-class land. This is totally untrue, but the misconception persists. Even though the description "third class" is probably recognised by the majority of local planning officers and other officials as incorrect, developers and the general public continue to be misled and confused. I believe therefore that a strong case exists for a small but effective modification to the notation.
A simpler and clearer system would be to renumber grades 1 to 3 as grade 1A to 1C, the present grade 4 becoming grade 2 and the present grade 5 becoming 3. This is set out in the table below:
Old Style New Style Grade 1 1A Grade 2 1B Grade 3 1C Grade 4 2 Grade 5 3 This system will emphasise beyond any possible misunderstanding that all land in the present first three grades is productive, that is prime, agricultural land. I must emphasise that there is no intention of altering the boundaries between the different grades on the published maps, the map details will remain unchanged. all that is proposed in a simple amendment to the legend on each map. The subdivision of grade 3 (or 1C) land will continue. As the subdivisions do not appear on the published maps it is not proposed to give any sub-gradings.
I recognise that this question of the notation of the agricultural land classifications is not just a matter for this Ministry alone to decide. The maps are widely used by everyone connected with planning and it is only right that they should be asked to express their views on this proposal before a decision is finally taken. Accordingly, therefore, and with the agreement of my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Wales and the Under-Secretary of State for the Environment, my hon. Friend the Member for Pudsey (Mr. Shaw) a consultation letter which sets out these proposals in slightly more detail has today been issued to a wide range of professional organisations, the local authority associations, town and country planning associations, the agriculture industry and many others so that we can hear views from a wide spectrum of interests.
32WComments have been asked for by 30 June and I hope to make a further announcement shortly after that date.