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Planning Bill

I support Amendment No. 72, which is tabled in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Cameron. I do not think that parish councils should be squeezed out of the consultation process. They easily could be, and a formal reminder that they have a right to be consulted would be a very good thing. I also support Amendment No. 74, tabled by the noble Lords, Lord Judd and Lord Greaves. The Bill does not recognise that protection of the landscape should be a factor in decisions about where nationally significant infrastructure projects are sited and what sort of projects should be sited in what sort of areas. I hope that, following the debates we had last week, at the next stage there will be a reference in the Bill to landscape. This amendment would reinforce that message. In many cases, there are plans to extend national parks, which can be pre-empted by developments that take place beyond the current frontier of the national park. That is another reason why the views of national park authorities should be sought. A national park authority is a local authority for the purposes of the Bill and it should be treated as such.