Clause 36 - Permit regulations

Part of Traffic Management Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 5:30 pm on 29 January 2004.

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Photo of Christopher Chope Christopher Chope Shadow Spokesperson (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) 5:30, 29 January 2004

Amendment No. 189 is about the need for a national permit scheme, which does not mean that everyone buys into it, but means that there should be some basic national parameters. This probing amendment is intended to find out what the Government think about the administrative nightmare that there would be if there were multiple schemes with different permit variations for operators working in different areas and boroughs in cities. Operators might be subject to penalties for inadvertent failures to apply. Will the Minister assure us that there will be standard core elements in any permit scheme—for example, relating to the period within which people have to apply and within which the permit must be dealt with, and the money that has to be paid to obtain the permit? Will he also assure us that the administrative burden and systems for utilities and large organisations, which operate throughout many parts of the country and work with many local authorities, will not be too complicated for what they have to do? It is true that there is an issue about the difference between urban and rural areas. That is surely one reason why we should have permit schemes only in areas that need them rather than different schemes in different areas. This is a plea for a Government response to the argument that we should have one national scheme rather than lots of individual, localised schemes.