Member

Creating ponds can require planning permission. I have received a briefing from the Freshwater Habitats Trust, which is positive about this, although it is concerned about the potential size of what I propose. I have tried to propose in this amendment, as a permitted development right, something about 50 metres by 50 metres—about the size of the Olympic swimming pool in Stratford, to give noble Lords a sense of the proportion if they were fortunate enough to go there for the Olympics or since. I am not looking to suddenly have commercial fishing lakes, fish farms or other things around the country as a direct consequence of that. However, I am keen that they become an opportunity for sustainable farming, as the Wildlife Trusts commended in their briefing.