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Planning Bill

My Lords, I support the remarks made by the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin. I know from personal experience that wind farm applications in rural areas come up against a huge wall of resistance. Without some guidance or even a statement in the Bill along the lines suggested, wind energy, on which I believe our immediate future depends, will not play the part in our energy strategy that I know the Government desire. This is essential. I have dealt in local government with other matters of this sort, such as extracting minerals, finding encampments for gypsies and the disposal of waste. Wherever you put them they will run up against huge prejudice and, no doubt, strong feeling locally, but they have to go somewhere. I warmly support the noble Lord’s proposal that planning policy guidance and national policy statements should take precedence over what I believe are local and often prejudiced concerns.