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Parish Councils (Planning)

My hon. Friend makes an important point. It is increasingly recognised that planners are under pressure not just to be professional, but to be communicators. The hon. Member for Somerton and Frome highlighted the opportunities that e-government and electronic communications offer to upper-tier authorities, whether district or county, to embed the parish councils as partners in service delivery and in consultation and information. Those opportunities are significant. Duplication would be avoided, and the public often do not know which level services are delivered from. The hon. Gentleman’s point about the attitude to parish councils is important. They should be embraced and their views taken seriously. Of course there are good and bad parish councils, and sometimes very parochial issues are raised, but that is outweighed by neighbourhood empowerment and the ability to achieve a sustainable community. People have the right to expect that their views will be taken into consideration and listened to. The alienation of the public from politics and policy decisions could be helped by strong and effective parish councils. My hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) obviously speaks with great knowledge about these matters. He wants unitary authorities. He emphasised the point about the third tier and I agree. I am grateful to him for praising the Government and pointing out to the House that we have funded parish councils and created the quality parish council scheme, which has devolved power. We want to see more of that and an acknowledgment that money has gone into the development of the village plans. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing that to the attention of the House, and for his point about the university of Gloucestershire, which I was not aware of. I shall look further into it, as it is important. My hon. Friend the Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor), who is also very knowledgeable about these matters, spoke about the problem of part-parished areas. That is an important part of our White Paper debate and how we move forward. My hon. Friend the Member for Stroud said that we should not impose parishes on areas that did not want them, but the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Leicestershire is being taken into consideration in the White Paper. The hon. Member for Kettering is right—he has raised matters about all four levels of government. As far as I know, I am not due to attend a debate about the European Union in the near future, but perhaps he wants to complete his quintet with that. I congratulate him on the points that he made. I am jealous that he can chair a forum made up of 22 parishes, which must be a useful tool in representing his constituency. He raised the case of Barton Seagrave and Burton Latimer and mentioned the campaign of Mr. and Mrs. Mitchelson, and I acknowledge his point about the position of the parish in big planning applications. In such situations, the onus is on authorities and Governments to listen more to the views of parishes than they would otherwise do. The hon. Member for St. Ives (Andrew George) acknowledged that there are good and bad parish councils. The detractors of parishes sometimes pick up on petty and parochial points, which is not a rational way to view parishes, and we must take into account that the vast majority of activity is good. He also raised an interesting point, which I shall take away, that a parish should be a planning authority. He also suggested that the parish has a role in enforcing planning decisions and planning law, which is a powerful point. He wants other powers for parishes and cited the example of the Isles of Scilly, which are in my mind at the moment because they are recipients of the formula grant in the local government settlement—they will receive £67,375. Funding is an important issue in moving more powers downwards, although I know that that is not the end of the argument. Turning to the policy questions, in addition to the statutory time limits of eight and 13 weeks for determining minor and major planning applications respectively, the Government have set performance targets for district and borough councils to encourage efficiency in their planning sector. We believe that timeliness in delivering planning decisions is an important part of a quality planning service, that applicants have a right to expect a measure of certainty in the handling of their development proposals and that quality should not be sacrificed to speed or quantity. As part of the best value regime, local planning authorities have the targets of dealing with 60 per cent. of major, applications within 13 weeks, 65 per cent. of minor applications within eight weeks and 80 per cent. of other applications within eight weeks. Comparative results of local authority performance across England are published on the internet in the form of a checklist. As we shall see, however, there is no longer a performance target for the delegation of decisions to planning officers, which has been restricted as part of our general policy. We take the accusation that targets have perverse effects seriously. Let me say a little more about decision making and the planning system in general. Prompt decision making with no loss of quality is only one element of the planning services we want local authorities to provide. Communities deserve openness and transparency of process and of decision making. The latter must go further than simple compliance with the consultation arrangements laid down in the law. Improving the planning system is also predicated on increased public participation in the process, whether by individuals, by groups or by bodies such as the parish council. One of the main aims of our recent planning reforms has been to increase the involvement of local people in the planning decisions that affect their lives. Local planning authorities are now required to publish a statement of community involvement, setting out how local people and organisations will be not only engaged in the preparation and revision of local development documents, but consulted on the more significant planning applications. There is also independent examination of the statement of community involvement. A local planning authority must comply with its statement. We brought in this procedure to help to ensure that district and borough councils feel obliged to make greater and more effective efforts to engage the local community directly and to exploit the knowledge of their area which local people and, as all hon. Members have said, their parish councils can proffer to assist the planning system.