To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will introduce legislation to limit the number of county structure plans which may be prepared by any authority.

My right hon. Friend issued a draft planning policy guidance note on structure plans and regional guidance in November 1989 which encouraged county planning authorities with more than one structure plan to make an early start on preparing a single replacement plan. Our proposals for legislation, set out in the White Paper "The Future of Development Plans" (Cm. 569), envisaged a single statement of planning policies for each county and for each national park.