National Parks

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 10:00 pm on 24 February 2014.

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Photo of Julian Lewis Julian Lewis Conservative, New Forest East 10:00, 24 February 2014

In order to cheer my hon. Friend up a bit, does she think that the Government are exercising a degree of expectation management? The proposal that national parks such as the New Forest should be open to this sort of unregulated development is so preposterous that I cannot help wondering whether it has been put up as a kite so that the Government can then dismiss it and make a great concession by doing the obvious thing, which is to exclude places like the New Forest and Dartmoor from these ridiculous provisions. I wonder whether she agrees with the New Forest National Park Authority, which says:

“It will make a mockery of our planning rules when a resident in Southampton will still need planning permission for a dormer window, but three houses can be built in the middle of the New Forest National Park” without any such permission?