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10.27 pm
Mr. Robert Atkins (South Ribble): I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley (Mr. Dover) for allowing me to make a brief contribution to the debate. He has laboured long and hard--as long as he has been a Member of Parliament--to have the site's importance recognised. We had hoped that the British Aerospace takeover of Royal Ordnance would ensure the continuation of employment on the site, but that was not to be.
As my hon. Friend said, it is a substantial site, of which a small proportion is in my constituency. I have followed my hon. Friend's lead in going from pillar to post in putting the case for an enterprise zone. I was an Environment Minister when my hon. Friend led a delegation to meet Department of the Environment officials, and he understood that I was not able to be present on that occasion.
My hon. Friend the Minister will recall our travails in Committee when considering the Environment Agency legislation. We examined the problems of contaminated land and what could be done to retrieve such sites into the development cycle. This is a case in point: we are looking to attract industry to that substantial site and to create jobs.
While the South Ribble borough council and Chorley have some differences about a number of suitable sites in the area, this site could be used to create jobs and attract industry--particularly high-tech industry, which would help to recover some of the costs associated with remediating the contaminated land.
It would not be acceptable to house residents from, say, Preston on the site--as is being proposed by the county council and by others. We want to see a mixed development of industry--predominantly in a nice high-technology environment--on the site. If housing or recreational facilities could be put on the site as well, so be it. In essence, we are looking for industry and we are looking for jobs.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Sir Paul Beresford):
I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley (Mr. Dover) and to his right hon. assistant the Member for South Ribble (Mr. Atkins) for raising the issues surrounding the site. It is interesting and fascinating. Both my right hon. Friend and my hon. Friend have been battling with this issue, with much energy, for a considerable time. I agree that we need to make every effort in this area, and in other areas like it, and use such sites productively. I applaud the point made by my right hon. Friend about the productive use of the site.
However, we have to accept that there is a scale to the task which means that it will inevitably have to have a slower track than has been followed in some other cases.
As my hon. Friend has demonstrated, the Royal Ordnance site is complex and difficult: there are some 1,500 buildings of various types, roads, distribution areas, open spaces, test areas and dumping grounds. Hon. Members will appreciate that a site of this size--some 300 hectares: from my back of the envelope mathematics, approximately a square mile--is not only large but diverse. Therefore, there is not one single approach or means of tackling it.
I believe that an enterprise zone on such a complex site would be counter-productive--the area does not have high unemployment relative to some other areas. An enterprise zone, and an enterprise zone alone, would, to my mind, stifle investment in the area--while everyone in the industry waited to see whether it came forward, and while we tried to explain to Brussels why we should have such a site. It is quite clear from the answer that my hon. Friend has received that it is unlikely that we will obtain such permission.
In the early 1980s, a number of sites were designated as enterprise zones on an experimental basis, and they had a relatively high cost compared to some of the other methods. In December 1987, we announced that the enterprise zone scheme would not be extended unless there were exceptional circumstances--as was the case with the eight enterprise zones designated since that time. Each one was in response to a sudden major impact on industry caused by a closure of a traditional heavy industry--shipbuilding, steel making or coal mining. I concede that there is a parallel that one could make in this area from the Royal Ordnance.
This area of Chorley does not have a poor economy.In fact, it has a vibrant and wider economy--which would considerably complicate matters when we tried to get permission from Brussels. As my hon. Friend said, it has been made clear that a new enterprise zone, located outside an assisted area, would be resisted--to put it mildly.
I have, as my right hon. and hon. Friends know, asked the officials in the Department to work closely with the local authorities, and particularly with English Partnerships, to consider a range of options available for tackling the site.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley knows, English Partnerships has recognised the site's economic potential and significance. Substantial work has been done already to investigate the potential of the Royal Ordnance site, targeted specifically at prospects for its redevelopment and rejuvenation.
My right hon. and hon. Friends will be aware of the study carried out by the consultants at the end of 1994. That aimed to formulate a strategic framework for the complementary regeneration of several major brown-field sites in the area, including the Royal Ordnance site at Euxton. Its conclusion was that this was a flagship site of significant potential for a major role in the regeneration and economic growth of the region.
My hon. Friend the Member for Chorley may also know that, in December 1993, under the Konver I Community initiative, a grant of £446,400 was awarded to Chorley business and technology centre towards a project at the Royal Ordnance factory site. The grant covered four elements--preparatory work for a future
scheme; surveys of the 60 hectares; a feasibility study for a soil bio-remediation centre; and creation of a manufacturing facility. I understand that the organisation has successfully provided workshop space on the Royal Ordnance site to assist small companies in need of new premises.
More recently, a working group has been set up to bring together the key local players, especially representatives from the two borough councils with a shared interest in the site. The site straddles the boundary between the two borough councils, Chorley and South Ribble, as has been explained. My hon. Friend the Member for Chorley will be aware of the two local plans for these, which propose a mixture of housing and employment areas and open spaces.
Based on those local plans, as they stand, the split is likely to be in the region of 10 per cent. for housing,50 per cent. for employment and 40 per cent. for open space. That remains to be confirmed, as the local plans are still being debated, but I am sure that those provisional splits will go some way to reassuring my hon. Friend, and particularly my right hon. Friend the Member for South Ribble, that careful consideration is being given to achieving a balanced mix of uses.
My hon. Friend the Member for Chorley may be aware that an investigation of the site and building conditions has been undertaken in two phases, predominantly because of the size and the costs involved. The first phase, covering an area of 82 hectares, has been completed at a cost of £250,000, partially met by Konver assistance.The second phase, which is currently under way, will cost around £470,000. Again, part is to be met by Konver II, part by Royal Ordnance, and English Partnerships has agreed to contribute £118,000. That is substantial support, helping to speed up the process.
The important work is due to be completed by summer this year. English Partnerships and Royal Ordnance are in agreement that further progress is dependent on the findings and the recommendations. That is a sensible way forward. Once the site report is available, it will be possible for the various bodies involved to work out in more detail the joint approach. As I have said, there are more than 300 hectares to attack, and it is realistic to plan for phases over a number of years. There can be no quick fixes on a site as complex and as large as this.
Much is currently going on behind the scenes. Neither the private nor the public sector will invest in the site until we have a clear idea of what needs to be done to clean and clear the area. My right hon. Friend the Member for South Ribble will understand that, having piloted the Environment Act 1995 through some of its stages, predominantly its Committee stage.
I should like to suggest an alternative approach to my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley, who may wish to take it up with the local authorities. A part of the Royal Ordnance site could be designated as a simplified planning zone. That would have the effect of granting full planning permission for specified types of development, in advance of the precise development proposal being worked up. My hon. Friend may be aware that that is similar to the simplified planning procedures which operate within an enterprise zone, without all the long-drawn-out procedures.
The kinds of developments concerned, together with any conditions or limitations attached to them, are set out in the scheme which lasts for 10 years once adopted.
Developers are able to act in the knowledge that development specified in the scheme will be permitted, so they can go ahead without needing to go through the performance of a planning application. That removes one of the more bureaucratic drags on development that some local authorities impose.
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