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Broads Authority Bill (By Order)

I am grateful for that intervention, which is well made. I agree with the hon. Gentleman's concern. I turn now to general directions. There is concern about what consultation means and whether public bodies listen to the outcomes of consultations. The point made to me is that the authority might operate the process properly, but in the end it can ignore the result of the consultation and do exactly what it originally wanted anyway. The issue comes down to trust in the authority and whether the navigators believe that their interests are being properly pursued. It is felt that there is a loss of public freedom because of unnecessarily increased control. Specific reference is made to general direction 4.6, which, it is said, allows revocation of or change to any general direction. I am told that that is an unacceptable and inappropriate additional power. I have been informed that the special directions restrict or prevent the free movement, anchorage or mooring of vessels. That affects the rights of the master of a vessel, the right to navigate the current extent of the navigation area, yacht racing in windy conditions and the rights, granted by the Magna Carta to all common men, to free navigation and fishing on tidal waters. Furthermore, it is said that the Bill allows a navigation officer—it may not be the particular navigation officer, but the one who happens to be on duty on any particular occasion—to ““revoke or amend”” a special direction at any time for any reason without justification or consultation. Again, the concern is about the potential abuse of the power that the Bill could provide. I have also been told that the Bill gives power to the Broads Authority to appoint a navigation officer without specifying the qualifications needed to discharge his or her duties properly. It also provides the power for any ““authorised person”” to declare any vessel unsafe without specifying the qualifications that that person must hold. There are also concerns about the powers in relation to adjacent waters: to be effective, the Bill must clearly define ““adjacent waters””, but that is not attempted. There is no such definition in the Bill; it is down to the interpretation of officers. I am told that the Bill sets out to transfer responsibility for Breydon Water to the Broads Authority without provision for additional funds. There is a potential liability for substantial and ongoing maintenance costs, but the authority freely admits that today it does not have the funds for essential maintenance within its existing area. The hon. Member for Norwich, North referred to the agreement, which appears already to be in place and stipulates the circumstances in which and processes by which the navigation committee will be consulted by the authority. People are concerned about that. They say that the Broads Authority should be adhering to it, but at its first opportunity has failed to do so. Under the agreement, the proposal to change the navigation committee appointments system should have been referred to the committee, but it was not. Again, that comes down to the question of trust between the two sides. The navigation committee wants to ensure that there is a clear continuing statutory duty to consult it. During the Bill's evolution, the original section of the legislation that places a duty to consult the navigation committee has been removed. When the Minister winds up, I want to be absolutely sure that a clear duty to consult remains in the Bill. On the amendments put forward by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, there is concern about the merging of the navigation account with the general account. People say, with some justification, that that removes transparency of accounting for toll payers' funds and leaves several important points undefined, such as the year-end surplus or deficit in the navigation part of the merged account. Transparency on the use of funds, particularly toll payers' funds, is very important. People also say that changes imposed by DEFRA mean that the additional national park grant funding can no longer be directly applied to maintenance of navigation, which is unacceptable. People say, in summary, that the Bill changes the remit of the Broads Authority from a management role to one of controlling and restricting navigation. They also refer to the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act 1988. That is similar to the National Parks Acts, but in addition to their two primary purposes, it includes a third—to protect the interests of navigation without, as with the National Parks Acts' Sandford principle, a mechanism for conflict resolution across all three equal responsibilities. Toll payers object to the Bill because it provides the means for an unscrupulous future Broads Authority—they do not make that charge against the current authority—to resolve conflict by use of general and special directions to the detriment of the right to navigate: in other words, ““Sandford by stealth””. Those are the continuing concerns, and it is important that they are placed on the record.