HC Deb 13 February 1992 vol 203 cc616-8W
Dr. David Clark

To ask the Minister of Agriculture. Fisheries and Food to how many consultations from local planning authorities relating to individual planning applications for non-agricultural development his Department responded in each six months since January 1988; if he will provide for each period the number of objections, conditional objections, appraisals, no objections and cases which were either withdrawn or in which

1 January 1988 to 30 June 1988 1 July 1988 to 31 December 1988 1 January 1989 to 30 June 1989 1 July 1989 to 31 December 1989 1 January 1990 to 30 June 1990 1 July 1990 to 31 December 1990
Total number of consultations 775 715 648 648 692 747
Objections 17 14 19 14 16 10
Conditional response 114 96 59 53 76 77
Appraisal 344 282 305 360 401 470
No objection 238 215 89 80 67 44
Withdrawn 24 12 15 13 15 19
Wrong referral 38 96 161 128 117 127
Hectares
Grade 1 172.9 870.3 802.4 154.6 252.4 226.5
Grade 2 1,171.7 1,183.0 1,600.9 1,729.0 2,442.9 2,739.6
Grade 3a 2,733.2 2,911.2 3,025.3 2,715.9 2,992.9 2,395.9
Grade 3b 4,897.4 4,666.3 4,396.1 2,632.7 4,568.2 4,337.8
Grade 3 (no sub-division) 1,509.5 1,520.2 1,757.3 3,857.2 5,623.9 6,155.0
Grade 4 947.2 859.9 939.8 1,042.0 1,243.3 2,108.7
Grade 5 190.1 374.4 143.5 215.2 427.3 192.5
Other land 4,249.1 3,671.9 6,321.1 5,218.8 5,188.4 8,506.9

Note: Conditional response" includes both conditional acceptances and objections.

Revised guidelines and criteria introduced for grading the quality of agricultural land provided for two subgrades of grade 3 land: 3a and 3b. the latter being a combination of the previous 3b and 3c.

Dr. David Clark

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his answer of 27 January,Official Report, colums 445-46, if he will list for each year since 1980 the number of applications which were rejected by his Ministry and were subsequently refused by the local authorities concerned; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Gummer

The records do not show this information.

1992. Dr. David Clark

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the amount of agricultural land in England in each grade. including 3a and 3b, in(a) 1986 and (b)

Mr. Gummer

The published agricultural land classification maps and data are based on strategic planning work carried out in the 1960s and do not sub-divide grade 3 land. The original survey showed the proportion of land in each grade in England to be as follows:

per cent.
Grade 1 3.3
Grade 2 16.7
Grade 3 54.0
Grade 4 15.7
Grade 5 10.3

The agricultural land classification maps and data provide only a very general indication of the distribution of land quality. Resurveying at a larger scale is necessary to obtain a definitive grade for individual sites.

the referal was inappropriate; and how many hectares of each grade of agricultural land, including 3a, 3b and 3c, were involved in each period.

Mr. Gummer

The information requested for England and Wales is as follows: