Clause 40
Planning Bill
9:15 am
Jacqui Lait (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; Beckenham, Conservative)
I support the need to probe the Minister on the matter. The hon. Gentleman makes a point about the speed at which local government can move, but I am conscious that there are people for whom a deadline of 28 days could be exceedingly difficult. It is not beyond the wit of man or woman to work out that should it be a busy time on the farm—because so many of these infrastructure projects are likely to be on farming land—farmers will have other things that they need to do rather than responding to an application that would affect them.
An elderly person whose land was affected could, as we know from our constituency work, take a lot longer than the time specified to respond. I have noticed personally that as people get older it takes them a long time to consider a matter and get their heads around its implications before they can take action by obtaining legal or other professional advice. I am generally supportive of an extension on the grounds that we want to ensure that the pre-application process is as effective as possible—a point I have made before—and we are coming to amendments that try to make it more effective. However, if the process is constrained too tightly its effectiveness might be lessened and there might be more cause for complaint, which could be legal or in the form of a complaint at the inquiry. That would lead to an inevitable delay, and the purpose of the Bill is to reduce those delays. If the Minister could reassure us of his intentions on the provision, I should be happy not to press the amendment, as, I am sure, would the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy.