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Planning Bill

moved Amendment No. 212: 212: Clause 53, page 31, line 7, leave out ““that purports to be an application”” The noble Lord said: I was prompted to table the amendment because it struck me that the wording of Clause 53(1) was peculiar. It says: "““The following provisions of this section apply where the Commission receives an application that purports to be an application for an order granting development consent””." If the commission receives something that only purports to be an application, it probably is not an application, and therefore it should be referred back to the sender. It either is an application or it is not. That was the reason for Amendment No. 212; it is quite simple. If there is some frightful legalistic explanation of why we need those words in the Bill, I may be obliged to accept that they should remain there, but on the whole, for the sake of clarity, it would be much better if those words were removed. Amendment No. 220 cross-references this question of interested parties back to those who have been consulted under Clause 41. They ought to be notified if a planning application, as a result of that consultation, is notified to the commission, so that it knows that there is a planning process in play. Amendment No. 222 deals with the question of how an application should be publicised using the local press and so on. Amendment No. 223 stipulates that that should be done within 28 days of the making of the application. Again, that is perfectly proper. It is an obligation on the commission, but I would have thought that it is not an obligation that is impossible for it to meet. Amendment No. 226 includes the people who made representations at an earlier stage as the people who should be informed that an application has been accepted. There are other amendments in the group, which are all aimed at making the process transparent and obvious. I very much look forward to hearing what the noble Baroness says in response. I beg to move.