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Greater London Authority Bill

My Lords, the noble Baroness did not mention it, but I am very proud of my home borough’s introduction of differential parking charges, and I stress differential. But we are not here to discuss that—or perhaps we are, because we are discussing how one balances all these considerations. I have some questions for the noble Baroness and one for the Minister, which is how PPS 3 deals with this issue. It acknowledges the issue, but I am not sure what the strength of that is. First, however, perhaps I may ask the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, what is meant by ““special regard””. I am not sure where that comes in the hierarchy of ““having regard””, ““being in conformity with””, or whatever. I suppose that it is a little more than ““having regard””. It was the terminology used in the Private Member’s Bill to which she referred, but I am not sure what it means. Perhaps it is a matter of common sense. Is it necessary for primary legislation to deal with this issue? It is certainly appropriate for us to debate it as a mechanism to raise the matter, but should not the London Plan be the vehicle for it? It would then be in place and everything else would fall into place afterwards. If the London Plan is not tough enough on this, I should think that it is open to the boroughs to create their own policies on it. The noble Baroness may say that that would not be adequate if the London Plan went in a different direction, but there is a certain amount here about which we need to understand the framework. However, I congratulate the noble Baroness on raising an issue that is clearly important to the physical and mental well-being of Londoners. It is hugely important to have green spaces.