Amendment 372ZA

Part of Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill - Committee (13th Day) – in the House of Lords am 5:00 pm ar 18 Mai 2023.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of The Earl of Caithness The Earl of Caithness Ceidwadwyr 5:00, 18 Mai 2023

If I were a fisherman on one of the Dorset rivers now with the mayfly hatching, I would have caught a most wonderful trout at the end of my line.

I say to the noble Baroness that I was alarmed, because I know that, in her heart of hearts, she is very supportive of this. However, her boss Keir Starmer said that he wanted to develop on green land. As my noble friend Lord Deben has just said, our chalk streams are going through highly developed land already. Which side of the fence is the Labour Party on? I hope the noble Baroness will reply.

I will ask of both Front Benches the question I was going to ask of my noble friend the Minister. Are they prepared to give the commitment to our chalk streams that the chalk streams demand? To remedy the chalk stream problem, it is not a question of days, months or years, but of decades, and an awful lot of interests have to be tackled. Unless we can get reassurance that all the parties across the House have that commitment, our chalk streams will not be in the health they should be