Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1) in respect of which local plans in which Government Office regions he and his predecessors have made a direction under paragraph 1(3) of Schedule 8 to the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 not to retain a local plan policy to protect agricultural land; (293004)

(2) with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 17 October 2007, Official Report, column 1338W, on planning: agriculture, in respect of which local plans, broken down by Government Office region, the Secretary of State has made a direction under paragraph 1(3) of Schedule 8 to the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 to not save a local plan policy of protecting the best and most versatile agricultural land since October 2007.

Local planning authorities apply to the Secretary of State where they consider it necessary for the Secretary of State to save policies under paragraph 1(3) of schedule 8 to the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. In the following cases the Secretary of State declined to save a policy relating to agricultural land:

East Midlands

Northamptonshire County Council Waste Local Plan

South East

Bracknell Forest

Buckinghamshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan

Chiltern

Crawley

East Hampshire

Eastleigh

Elmbridge

Guildford

Hart

Medway

Mid Sussex

Milton Keynes Minerals Local Plan

Runnymede

Tandridge

Wycombe

South West

North Dorset

Torbay

Volume 498: debated on Wednesday 28 October 2009