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Public Parks

These are all matters that the council should take into account before making a decision. I am concerned that my hon. Friend’s assertions contradict the information that appears to have been given to the Government office, and I will look into those matters for him. It remains the case, however, that it would be exceptional for the Secretary of State to call in a planning decision in such an area. My hon. Friend has made genuinely helpful comments on this matter to the Secretary of State, but the judgment was made that it really was not a national issue in which my right hon. Friend felt that she could intervene and take the matter into her own hands to decide. Now that the council has taken its decision, the question of intervention no longer arises, other than the possibility of an interested party seeking a review of the decision in the courts. I observe that simply as a fact, not to express an opinion on the merits of the case. I am of course sorry that my hon. Friend and some of his constituents are gravely disappointed with the decision, but I hope that, regardless of it, he will accept that such a matter should be decided by a local council. Ultimately, the role of the council is to make a judgment on the quality of park provision, set against the need for a special needs health centre. The council made its judgment on the basis of a trade-off of resources that the development could release to upgrade the rest of the park and other open spaces in its area. Although it had to consider the national policy framework that I have set out, the decision was rightly one for the council to make. It would not have been consistent with our wider vision for local government, set out in the White Paper last month, for us to take over an essentially local matter to be decided by people in London. I understand the intensity of local feeling expressed by my hon. Friend this evening, but I hope that he will accept that there are cases on which it is rightly within the remit of local authorities to make the decisions, and that it is not the Secretary of State’s role to intervene in the planning process. Of about 650,000 applications a year, only about 100 are called in by the Secretary of State. A very strict test has to be applied before a case is called in, and they are called in only in exceptional circumstances. Having said that, I acknowledge the strongly held views of my hon. Friend and his constituents on the council’s decision. He has raised issues which, although outside the planning system, give him cause for concern. They include the quality of the information on which the decision was based. Ministers in the Department for Communities and Local Government cannot override a decision that has already been taken by the council, and it would be wrong to comment on what my hon. Friend has said this evening without obtaining more details. Many of the issues that he has raised are not actually planning issues, even though they involve his grave concerns about a planning decision. They are wider and more serious than that. We will consider how the matters can be investigated in a way that will satisfy my hon. Friend and his constituents, because serious allegations have been made about the council’s conduct. My hon. Friend mentioned seeking redress or an investigation from the district auditor. It may be possible for some of the issues that he wants to refer to be examined by the Standards Board as well. I make no comment or judgment on the allegations; I am merely offering advice on what my hon. Friend may consider an appropriate way in which to proceed.