Clause 13 - Survey of area: county councils
Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Tony McNulty (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Harrow East, Labour)
That is a choice, not a function of any transitory stage between now and the advent of elected regional assemblies throughout the country. It was suggested that a group of local planning authorities should jointly produce the regional spatial strategy and that the regional dimension was not needed at all. That is absurd. As I said, we are talking about important functions, and it is more than appropriate that county councils, given their experience and expertise, should carry them out.
Clause 13 is simply a counterpart to clause 12 as regards the continuing responsibility of the shire counties for county matters. I said that we would take on board the notion of planning office development. Clause 13 is very important in relation to the rest of part 2.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 13 ordered to stand part of the Bill.