Clause 2 - Regional planning bodies
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
4:00 pm
Mr Mark Francois (Rayleigh, Conservative)
I have a practical question about accountability. Let us assume that as part of the regional spatial strategy a decision is taken to build 5,000 houses in a town in an area that does not have an elected regional assembly. The people of that town are violently against large-scale house building, perhaps
because they feel that their local infrastructure cannot cope with it. What democratic accountability is there for the people in that town? They cannot vote out their elected regional representative because they do not have one. They could vote against their county councillors, but the Bill denudes their county council's planning power. They can protest to their Member of Parliament, but he does not have responsibility for regional spatial strategy. How could those people protest democratically about a decision that they believe to be injurious to their quality of life?