Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Nick Boles and Alison Seabeck
Nick Boles
My hon. Friend has been a vocal advocate for his constituents on particular applications in his area. As a result, we have clarified in recent planning guidance the time that a plan can be deemed to be sufficiently advanced but not yet sound, in order to enable a local authority to make a decision to refuse an application even if it does not have a sound plan. We believe that that is a step forward that gives councils the ability to make those decisions in such circumstances.
Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)
T7. I recently visited Crownhill fire station and members of its watch would like a Minister to answer a question about the tapering arrangements for their pension scheme. One firefighter has served since he was 18 years old. He is now 39 and will miss out because the scheme starts for those aged 40, so he will have to work for 42 years rather than 30 years. The watch want to know whether any consideration has been given to the scheme in operation for the police, which takes into account length of service rather than age.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Nick Boles and Alison Seabeck
Nick Boles
First, I congratulate my hon. Friend’s local authorities on making sure that the best is not the enemy of the good. She is absolutely right that the constituent authorities would need only to write to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to ask for the order to be revoked.
Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)
Will the Minister congratulate residents of Barne Barton in my constituency on the work they are putting in, with the Ministry of Defence, to get the neighbourhood plan together? Locally, the Ministry of Defence is really helpful with very sensitive land issues. However, there is a clear lack of understanding of the statutory remit as regards what is in and what is out in relation to neighbourhood plans. Will he therefore undertake to talk to colleagues in other land-owning Departments, and will he ensure that the Defence Infrastructure Organisation is included, because it clearly has problems with this?
Nick Boles
I thank the hon. Lady and, indeed, the Opposition parties for supporting neighbourhood planning, because it is a really worthwhile endeavour. I am very happy to talk to all Departments and agencies about their responsibility to co-operate with it.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Nick Boles and Alison Seabeck
Nick Boles
My hon. and learned Friend and I represent neighbouring constituencies and like him I believe that a minimum separation distance might be appropriate in our flat fenland landscape. That is why, before my appointment as Planning Minister, I supported Lincolnshire county council’s wind energy position statement and urged my planning authority to reflect it in its local plan. However, not all of England is like Lincolnshire—sadly for the rest of England—and a top-down national policy that ignored local variations in topography and local opinion would be wrong.
Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)
It is interesting to hear of the Minister’s interest in the noise and disruption allegedly caused by wind turbines. Would he therefore apply the same rule to the fans in energy from waste plants such as the one in Plymouth, which is 200 metres from people’s homes? Will he explain why the Department chose to call in two other applications for waste to energy plants but not the one in Plymouth?
Nick Boles
The rule I would apply is that wherever possible it should be left to local authorities to make those decisions. However, there are a few cases where applications have significance beyond local authority boundaries and it is therefore impossible for one local authority to decide. In the case the hon. Lady mentions, I would imagine that that criterion was not fulfilled.