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Local Government and Planning (Parkland and Windfall Development) Bill

I agree. That is why the Bill needs further attention in Committee and more detailed inspection. By its very nature, parkland sometimes sprawls over more than one local authority area. I have a great deal of open land in my area and people from all over Lancashire and the north-west come to visit it. They feel a sense of possession of that land and would feel aggrieved if a decision were taken in which they could have no say. I recognise that there would be a problem in extending a referendum to regular visitors to a parkland, but we need to ensure that everyone in the vicinity who would be affected has a vote. I have sympathy with clause 4, which provides for a right to appeal against the granting of planning permission. One of my six private Members’ Bills dealt with that. I am in favour of the public being able to have a further say when local authorities are deemed to have given planning permission. My final comment is about the trees, which have been mentioned time and again. The decision to fell a 350-year-old oak tree—if it was not dangerous or diseased—is appalling. It is shameful that something as historic and probably as beautiful—I have not seen it—as that grand oak has been felled. Has it been felled already?