Clause 51
Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]
12:00 pm
Andrew George (St Ives, Liberal Democrat)
My two amendments are probing, primarily to pursue a theme that applies throughout the Bill. That theme is the extent to which Government quangos, whether they are the MMO or other Government agencies, can determine the activities within any local authority or sub-regional area without sufficient or adequate consultation with the terrestrial local authority in the coastal area concerned. The purpose of the two amendments—particularly amendment 32—is to ensure that the Government have cognisance of the existence of local authorities and that those authorities have local strategic plans that apply to the coastal areas. Each local authority on the coast establishes policies that have, or seek to have, an impact on the local economy, whether in the furtherance of tourism and the holiday trade, in the furtherance of the maintenance of local industries, such as fishing, diving or marine exploration, or in the furtherance of other activities that relate to either a local industry or tourism. What happens beyond the control of the local authority has an impact on the local authority itself.
The purpose of the amendments is simply to raise issues that I hope the Minister is prepared to reflect on. I do not intend to press the amendments, but I am interested in the Minister’s response, particularly regarding the broader theme of seeking to ensure that democratically elected local authorities in particular, which have a clear interest in the future of the marine resource on their coastline, have a say in decision taking under the clause.