Member

Amendment 118 in the name of my noble friend Lady Pinnock seeks to extend the statutory consultees to include the ambulance and fire and rescue service. I am surprised that this is not the case. The principle is the same as that argued for the mandatory pre-application stage: the more pre-decision views are sought, the less likely it is that an ill-informed decision will be made that stores up problems for the future. The counter-argument that this will lead to delays can be offset by setting a timetable within which responses have to be made.