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Marine and Coastal Access Bill [HL]

I am even more confused now. I thank the Minister for his reply. I will explain why I am confused in a minute. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, that there is nothing in this amendment that suggests that the coastal route should be the only thing that is considered, or that any other kind of development should necessarily be ruled out. It does not say that at all. Nor does subsection (4)(a) say that. All that subsection (4)(a) states is that it should be "a material planning consideration" along with all the others. The noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, said that it should not be a material planning consideration. I am confused about that. I do not understand why it should not be, since it will be an important part of the local economy, the local recreational and leisure facilities and the land use of the area. By setting up the coastal route and access land as it stands, you effectively change the land-use designation of that area. You allow people access to recreational areas that they do not have access to at the moment, and you create a long-distance route. That long-distance route will certainly appear in local development framework documents, or what we now call the local plan. I cannot see that it can possibly not appear in those documents. Once it appears in them, it is part of the planning system. I understand the difference between the designation of land under CROW and the long-distance route, but the long-distance route will not be designated under CROW. It will be designated under the 1949 Act. A long-distance route such as the Pennine Way or the south-west coastal path is already a material planning consideration for any development that would take place and would affect it. That is my view; if the Government think that I am wrong, I would like to hear from them because I do not claim to be a total expert on this. I am absolutely certain that these matters are considered. They will certainly be a cause for objections to developments next to or on the path of the long-distance route which people think are inappropriate. I cannot conceive that the planning system would not consider those objections fairly and objectively. This is not to say that it has to overrule everything else. There seems to be a lack of understanding among some noble Lords about how the planning system works. People are allowed to put in objections. Just because Natural England would be a statutory consultee under my proposals and be able to say, "No, this would be disastrous and should not be allowed", or, "If you are going to do it, this is how we would divert it", does not mean that the local planning authority or the Infrastructure Planning Commission would regard that as the be all and end all. It may say, "We have considered these representations but on balance we are going to give planning permission". That happens all the time. I believe that Natural England is probably already consulted automatically by a lot of planning authorities on a lot of applications. Therefore, I do not understand what the objection is to the measure. I am confused because on the one hand we were told that these matters are nothing to do with this Bill and everything is okay, but on the other we are then told by the Minister that Natural England may well make representations, which will be considered along with all other representations, which is what I would expect. The local planning authority will then make a balanced decision. Surely that is what will happen, so I do not understand why the essence of the amendment, although not the wording, is being resisted. I am really trying to probe how this will work. What will be the relationship between the long-distance route and the planning system both in terms of overall planning—the development of local development frameworks, for example—and in terms of dealing with particular planning applications and what Natural England has to do if a development takes place which radically affects the route or the coastal margin, but particularly the route? What responsibilities will Natural England have to rectify the situation as regards the route? I do not understand why everybody is getting worked up over this. It seems to me that these are practical things that will happen and will have to be considered. The Government ought to think about this and tell us how the process will work. In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment A362AF withdrawn.