Clause 42 - Power to decline to determine applications
Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill
10:15 am
Sir Sydney Chapman (Chipping Barnet, Conservative)
I do not want to go into the detail unnecessarily, but there should be some simple mechanism whereby if an applicant thinks that the local planning authority is being unreasonable, he or she should not appeal to the Secretary of State but should be able to refer to the Secretary of State, who would give an immediate decision that there was a reasonable case for making a second application or whatever.
The Minister says that he will not introduce the measure relating to twin tracking until he is satisfied that local planning authorities have the extra resources. I welcome that greatly, but I presume—the hon. Gentleman might be able to clarify this; if not now, then as soon as he can, perhaps this afternoon—that the commencement of different parts of the Act, about which there is a special clause, will be triggered at different times. There will have to be a comprehensive provision so that all parts will not suddenly be activated. There are certain cases for certain parts. It would be great if the hon. Gentleman could consider that, because we might need a rather complicated mechanism for introducing the various parts of the Bill that are coming into force.