Member

In reality, the approach from the Government to development consent orders is to restrict communities with neighbourhood plans so that they are just one of many representations at the examination in public process of a DCO. It is very unfortunate that this is the case—we encourage communities to think about their neighbourhood and how they might include housing and community facilities and so on, and then when it comes to the crunch the implication is that they are not going to be well regarded and deemed significant. That is not helpful either to those communities or to having confidence in the English devolution Bill, which will be debated at some point in this House. I hope the Minister will reflect on what has been said and give us confidence that neighbourhood plans will be given the significance and relevance they deserve.