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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I draw the Committee’s attention to my debate of 13 December 2007 on the Severn barrage. I have a great deal of sympathy with what the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Coity, said. In that debate the IPC was not even on the horizon. I am not going to refer to the detail of the debate—it is on the record and can be read—but there was a great deal of support for conserving the situation in the Severn estuary. My noble friend Lord Tyler has begged the question what would have happened if we had had the Marine Bill before we had the Planning Bill. I guess that we would be having a totally different debate because we would have given the MMO primary planning powers. But that is not the situation. In this debate we are trying to redress the powers given to the IPC, which appear to be going to subsume any meaningful influence the MMO might have. I agree, too, with the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Crickhowell, about alternative production of electricity, particularly in sensitive areas around the coast. The issues raised tonight need careful consideration. The priority should surely be given to conservation. The damage that can be done by some of the proposals on the table would be catastrophic. We must remember that some of these areas have European conservation protection and the IPC will have great difficulty, if things are left as they are, overturning such designations. The problem for the Government is that they have been set huge targets for renewable energy production. The IPC has been the Trojan horse in the Planning Act to try to ensure that these targets are met, but the other serious considerations expressed tonight must not be ignored.