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Planning Bill

I want to add a few questions to those raised by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, about consultation. This matter has puzzled me since I started to read the Bill, and it has puzzled me all afternoon. As my noble friend Lord Cameron said, it is clear that when an application is being considered for a particular project, Chapter 2 of Part 5 provides for another set of consultations. They will be specific to the project concerned. At this stage, we are talking about the national scene, and I see that Clause 7(5) deals with policy statements where there is a specific description or site for the proposal. This applies to nuclear power stations and airports, but not to the rest. I should be grateful if the Minister would explain what the subject matter of the consultation will be in these other cases. The noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, gave us an example earlier of the railway line to connect London to the Channel Tunnel. A number of routes were put forward; in the end, none of them was chosen; so it came in the form of a parliamentary Bill. I have heard it said that there may be a new railway line from London to the north. If so, it would clearly go in some sort of a corridor, because that is the way that these things are done. The prospect of consultation on a corridor going from London to the border and beyond is something that concerns me considerably. What are the people consulted to be asked about? Will there be alternative routes? Will it be possible for consultees to put forward alternative routes? How is this to work? Of course there must be consultation, but it will be very difficult for consultees to know what they are supposed to say if they do not know what the project consists of. At the moment, except for the two cases that I mentioned, I see no indication set out in the Bill of the subject matter for the consultation. If the noble Baroness could enlighten me on that, I would find it a great deal easier to understand what we are all talking about.