Article For Kentish Express

13 May 2003

The news that the European Commission have intervened in the White Horse project will cause widespread dismay.

This project has been very widely supported throughout Shepway. When it came before the District Council I addressed the Planning Committee in support of the proposal. Conservative and Labour Councillors supported it. Liberal Democrat Councillors voted against.

After the proposal was passed by the Committee a public inquiry was held. Again I attended and gave evidence in support. The inspector recommended that the proposal should be approved.

I wrote to the Secretary of State for the Environment, then Stephen Byers, urging him to accept the Inspector’s recommendations. To his credit, he did so.

So this proposal has widespread local support, was the subject of careful scrutiny by an independent inspector and was approved by the Secretary of State.

It really is outrageous that the European Commission now seeks to interfere in a decision taken by the appropriately elected authorities at all levels in this country.

The European Commission does have the ability to intervene in matters of this kind. But that ability should only be exercised when there is a risk of really serious damage to the environment. That is not the case here. The independent inspector fully considered the question of damage to the environment and found the proposal acceptable. The Secretary of State agreed. The European Commission was wrong to interfere.

There is a lesson here for the future. If we are to continue to be able to make decisions in this country for ourselves on the basis of what is best for Britain we must resist further transfers of decision making from this country to the continent. That applies to the Euro and to the forthcoming report on the Convention on the European Constitution.

The intervention of the European Commission in the case of the White Horse is a lesson to us all. We must make sure we learn it properly.