Clause 168
Marine and Coastal Access Bill [Lords]
11:30 am
Richard Benyon (Shadow Minister, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Newbury, Conservative)
I am intrigued by the hon. Gentleman’s amendment and am inclined to support it. Will he clarify it a bit more? I like the idea of a degree of flexibility, and that is precisely what would be required, because some estuarial areas are immense and some are very fine and under intensive management already. What we want to avoid is a turf war, or perhaps a surf war—[Laughter.] I apologise, it just came into my head. We want to avoid a turf war between two organisations, which could be to the detriment of the management of fisheries. I agree with the hon. Gentleman on flexibility, but that should not result in conflict between two organisations.