Planning Bill

Perhaps the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith and I could explore the numbers a little more. In Clause 28, the Government propose to increase the threshold to 500,000 people, which is roughly one-100th spread over England and Wales, if I have got the mathematics right. I cannot see what is strategic about these plants. They are water treatment plants or sewage plants, or whatever we want to call them. Every town has to have one—London has lots of them and will have a great big tunnel down the Thames, which might be strategic—but they are not interconnected, so I wonder what is strategic about them. Is it just a convenient way of getting planning permission for something which is not very popular? If so, I could understand that as well. I compare them with a dozen rail freight terminals around the country which have to be connected by rail to work, but they are not apparently strategic—we will probably come back to that another day. I would understand the amendments of the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, to Clause 29 if I knew how many tonnes of hazardous waste were disposed of in the country as a whole. If it is the same figure as he has given, it is clear that there will be a lot of road or rail transport; if it is 10 or 100 times that, it might be more strategic. If my noble friend does not have the figures now, I am sure that he can write to us.