Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

Is not the hon. Gentleman arguing against himself? He has just praised RDAs and the devolution to them of the Countryside Agency’s rural development responsibilities, yet he decries the fact that county councils have not been given enough responsibilities. Surely if all the Countryside Agency’s work had gone to county and district councils, there would be no need for the commission for rural communities as a bureaucratic body overseeing another bureaucratic body, neither of which is accountable.