Clause 54 - Wales Spatial Plan
Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill
3:00 pm
Sir Sydney Chapman (Chipping Barnet, Conservative)
I join my hon. Friend in welcoming the Under-Secretary of State for Wales to our proceedings. I suspect that his attendance will be confined to this sitting only. I put on record how much I appreciate the way in which his ministerial colleague, the Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, has conducted himself in the first nine sittings. Single-handedly—from a ministerial point of view and not unaided by his civil servants—he has dealt with a measure which, being slightly more partisan, has severe flaws and sins of omission, as well as commission.
I look forward to the contributions from two of the three members of the Committee who represent seats in the Principality, the hon. Member for Monmouth, and the hon. Member for Aberavon (Dr. Francis). We seem to have lost the hon. Member for Merioneth—I could not possibly give the Welsh translation of his constituency.
I shall preface my comments by saying that my hon. Friend read out the populations of various regions of England and compared them with the population of the Principality. It is worth considering that the Greater London area contains as many people as live in Scotland and Wales. Scotland and Wales—both great countries—are blessed with First Ministers. We have to survive with a Mayor, who incidentally is hoping to increase the preset rate for my constituents by 98 per cent.