Lower Thames Crossing: Development Consent Debate
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Lord Liddle
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Lower Thames Crossing: Development Consent
Lord Liddle Excerpts(6 months, 1 week ago)
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Lord Davies of Gower (Con)
I recognise that this is a very important project. It will be of great advantage to many people, both north and south of the Thames.
Lord Liddle (Lab)
My Lords, is this not a classic case of how the planning system in Britain is fundamentally broken? It started in 2009 and we do not have a decision by 2024. How can it make sense to have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on a project when the Government have not actually given the final go-ahead?
In the 1930s, when Herbert Morrison faced opposition to the plans for Waterloo Bridge, he described the Conservatives as “Mr Dilly, Mr Dally and Mr Can’t”. Is that not the case with this Government—dilly, dally, can’t?
Lord Davies of Gower (Con)
That is a wonderful history lesson; I am most grateful to the noble Lord. The majority of decisions made by my department and applications for development consent orders have been issued within the three-month statutory deadline that starts from receipt of the recommendation report. That will hopefully be the case with this.