Clause 49
Planning Bill
2:00 pm
Bob Neill (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; Bromley and Chislehurst, Conservative)
I do not disagree with anything that was said about local authorities. I spent 16 years on a local authority and I am a pro-local authority person. However, I do not entirely see why it should not be practical to look beyond the local authority at other people, too. The Minister did not respond to the fact that in some cases, but not in others, the views of the local authority and of the residents will coincide. I would not want the—perhaps unintended—consequence of advantaging one set of consultees at the expense of another, which would be unfair.
I will not press the amendment to a Division, but I hope that before Report the Minister will reflect on how we can take account of the valued input of local authorities and also ensure fairness to individuals, residents associations or other representative groups. If only a small part of a local authority’s area is directly affected, there may be different perspectives that should be given equal weight. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.