Planning Bill

I am always astonished at the noble Baroness’s ability to find good reasons for opposing what I think are unassailable arguments, and for doing so in great detail and with great commitment. But I do not think that she has given any good arguments as to why national parks should not be in this list. Her main argument is that they are not elected authorities, which raises the issue of parishes. When we talked about parishes on, I think, the Local Government Bill, the Government revealed that they did not have a list or database of all the parishes in the country, which could cause a problem. Would it be possible to use the planning authorities, the development control authorities, as an intermediary for consulting parishes on these matters? In a formal way, the development control authorities consult parishes on planning applications probably weekly. They certainly do so in the ones that I know. They are all consulted on every planning application. They know them and how to do it. It would be possible to use the planning authorities, the district councils, the borough councils, et cetera to consult their parishes. Perhaps the Minister would go away and think about that and make it formal in some way.