HC Deb 14 January 1993 vol 216 cc817-8W
Mr. Geoffrey Robinson

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) if he will make a statement on the role of local public inquiries where decisions they take have national significance in cases where national policy is still under consideration;

(2) if he will suspend the public inquiry into the Port of Bristol Harbour Revision Order until the future is decided of the collieries in South Wales and the midlands which are linked to the outcome of this inquiry.

Mr. Norris

Issues of overall Government policy are not properly a matter for local public inquiries. The Harbour Revision Order about which a local public inquiry is now in progress deals with the transfer to a company, First Corporate, of some of the harbour authority powers of Bristol city council. I understand that the company is constructing a bulk import facility but that it is not relying upon the order to obtain the powers to do so. It is not therefore appropriate to suspend the inquiry.