I understand your semaphore perfectly, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I will indeed be brief, as we want to hear from the Minister on this important topic. I congratulate my good and hon. Friend Mr. Wyatt on securing the debate, which he opened with a characteristically articulate and informed speech. He has been an outstanding Member of Parliament for Sittingbourne and Sheppey. He was rewarded by a massive increase in his vote in 2001. I do not suggest that those who did not receive massive increases in their vote are not outstanding Members of Parliament, but some of us take rather longer to mature than others.

The debate gives me the opportunity to indulge in the rare, unalloyed, indeed practically unendurable, pleasure of congratulating the Government in very large measure on what they have achieved in terms of structure within my Constituency during the last eight years. When I first became the Member of Parliament for Medway I was asked what I expected from my stewardship. After a certain amount of thought I replied that two things seemed to be needed more than any other to change the structural basis of the Medway towns. The first was a university: ours is the largest conurbation in Europe without its own university. The second was the development of the Rochester and Chatham riverside—a massive area of post-industrial dereliction caused by the death of the dockyard 17 years ago. I am delighted to say that although neither has been completed, both developments are now inevitable, due in no small measure to the Government's Intervention.

Some £15 million has been given towards a new university based in the Medway towns—an outstanding contribution, which has made that development possible. Within 10 years we will have 10,000 students, which will change and revolutionise the intellectual and employment face of the towns in that part of Kent. Some £26 million has been granted by the Government to underpin the development of the Rochester riverside on a site for which the expression "brownfield site" might have been newly minted. That, too, will transform my constituency. There is no word for gratitude in politics, but there is a word for achievement, and that is a considerable achievement, on which I congratulate the Government.

I share my hon. Friend's reservations about the present structure plan. In my own constituency, I am concerned about the silence that radiates around development within the precious green areas that we have and that we must maintain. When I first arrived in my constituency, it had the most unenviable reputation—possibly in the country, and certainly in the south-east—for overdevelopment. That was probably linked to the fact that many of its councillors at the time were either developers or were linked to the development world. As a result, the Medway towns suffer in no small measure from a serious absence of green space, both within the towns and outside them. I hope that the Minister will take that into account when he responds to our points on structure and infrastructure in the Medway towns. I hope that he will say that the time has come to call a halt to development within and outside the towns.

It is an unhappy fact that the threats to the green space in my constituency come from the council, which is now resurrected not quite in its old aegis but in something like it. Names such as Watts Meadow and Copperfields will mean little to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, but they mean a great deal to my constituents. Those areas are currently threatened by a council that is remorselessly and recklessly selling off its own green space within the Medway towns as part of what it perceives to be a structural plan which is, in fact, no plan at all.

I say this to the Minister and I hope that he will take it on board. The Hoo peninsula, which is part of my constituency, is a rare and wonderful green space, which I enjoy as much as any of my constituents. I am sure that you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, because I know your predilections and activities, would also enjoy it very much were you able to visit. If you ever manage to visit my constituency, I should be delighted to introduce you to it.

We have fought battles over that land—for example, we successfully fought off incinerators. There is much talk now about development on the Hoo peninsula but, as far as I know, that is wholly false. There is nothing in any plan that I have seen—certainly not in one derived from the Government—that threatens development on the Hoo peninsula over and above the local plan that was agreed many years ago. I hope that that will continue to be the case, but I serve notice now, not simply on the Government and on local government, but on the developers who for many years have looked upon that area of Kent with salivation, that any attempt to concrete over or build on that wonderful and wild area will be resisted in precisely the same way in which my constituents and I made common cause to resist Cliffe airport, now of unblessed memory.

There is much on which to congratulate the Government. There has been a great deal of expenditure, partly leveraged from Government by my colleagues in the Medway towns and myself. Sometimes it has been said, rather unkindly, that the more unpopular one becomes with one's Government, the more money they give for development in one's own constituency. I do not recommend that as a way of obtaining money from the Government, but it can be argued and might be true in my case.

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Minister and my hon. Friend the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey for allowing me to make this short contribution. I congratulate my hon. Friend again on obtaining a debate on one of the most important issues facing the south-east.