Business of the House

Andrew Snowden Excerpts

Thursday 18th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I thank my hon. Friend for her question and welcome her back to her place. I look forward to continuing to work closely with her, as I have done in recent years. She always raises incredibly pertinent matters in this House. I do not have the answer to her question, but the Home Secretary will come to the House for a number of reasons in the coming weeks, when my hon. Friend might want to raise this matter. On Tuesday we have the immigration and home affairs debate on the King’s Speech, and Home Office oral questions are on Monday 29 July. If she does not get a reply at either of those, I will raise the matter directly for her.

[Mr Andrew Snowden (Fylde) (Con)]

As one proud Lancastrian MP to another, congratulations on your unanimous re-election to the Chair, Mr Speaker.

Planning on the green belt is a huge concern in my constituency of Fylde—housing is part of it, but there are also the Morgan and Morecambe wind farm proposals. Most residents back the new renewable energy being built off the Fylde coast, but there are concerns about the cabling and substation route, which appears to take the route of least resistance. It will see miles of farmland and countryside dug up, and substations built in inappropriate locations. We seem to be unable to get answers from the company on why that has been chosen as the preferred route, when other far more appropriate routes for cabling and substations exist. Will the Leader of the House assure me that the Government will work with us to get answers from the company and clarity about the other routes that could be used for the cabling, and to ensure that it works with me, local campaigners and the council to get the most appropriate route?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. This issue is so important that I think the hon. Gentleman ought to think about having an Adjournment debate on it—although he nearly had one just then.