Speeches by George.

“How does that compare with other treatments? Is the weight gain more or less significant following the programme?”

“”

“I am grateful, Madam Deputy Speaker. We are simply giving the example of Cornish devolution as one of the potential products should the Government not reject the opportunity for local authorities to be properly consulted, which is what is on the amendment paper this evening. That is the most important thing this evenin…”

“It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for East Thanet (Ms Billington) and in particular her points about parish and town councils. In Cornwall, where we are completely parished and towned in that sense, they are an important vehicle for communication up from the community. They enable communities to articulate the…”

“As the Minister will be aware, we have already received correspondence from the Secretary of State in which he recognised the special status of Cornwall and the reason its integrity would be retained. This is very important. In a letter to the leader of the council on 26 November, the Secretary of State said:”

“The Minister responded to that proposal in March, explaining that the Government were minded to continue the conversation with the local authority, and indeed with the six Members representing Cornwall’s constituencies, to ensure that we can make some progress on this. I hope that the Minister will reflect on that when…”

“That is welcome, although we would like to go further, as fellow Cornwall Members will emphasise in a moment. It is helpful to have that building block in place, but it is really important that we can go further.”

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““to explore designating the council as a Single Foundation Strategic Authority.””

“In the other place, Lord Teverson brought forward on Report amendment 31, which sought to add the following provision to the Bill:”

““The Government is minded, on an exceptional basis, to work with you”—”

““The local authority of the local government area does not have any specific responsibility for and stewardship of the rights of its population under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.””

“I rise to present a petition on the future of the Penzance driving test centre. The metrics used by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency assume homogenised geographic uniformity, but we are at the end of a long thin peninsula. The DVSA offers a postcode search tool, which is irrelevant to areas like mine. Distress l…”

“the local authority—”

“That would be a helpful vehicle for allowing the Government to recognise Cornwall’s special status and would, in our view, justify the transfer of combined mayoral authority powers to such locations.”

“The Government are promising that they will not impose things without local consent. The other side of that argument is that local authorities in areas such as Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly want to press on with devolution much faster than the Government seem willing to allow. Will the Minister account for that in t…”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent case. I know that, in a moment, he will come on to the point that this contract is coming to an end. I am sure that it is being reviewed by the Government—the Minister will respond on that issue—but we are encouraging them to bring the contract to a close, for the reasons that my h…”

“The hon. Gentleman raises once again the issue of second homes. He is well aware that the Liberal Democrats have proposed a change in the use class system to introduce a new use class for non-permanent occupancy. The introduction of such a thing would allow local communities to limit the number of second homes. It coul…”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent case. I know that, in a moment, he will come on to the point that this contract is coming to an end. I am sure that it is being reviewed by the Government—the Minister will respond on that issue—but we are encouraging them to bring the contract to a close, for the reasons that my h…”

“I believe the Minister has until 10 past 3 if he wishes. He has not addressed the issue I raised regarding the counterproductive impact of the changes to the national planning policy framework, particularly for edge-of-community rural exception sites. A wholesale change of planning is happening. Those sites were origin…”