On Wednesday 7th March 2007, immediately after Prime Minister's Question Time, Mr Dunne will co-sponsor a Ten Minute Rule Bill with John Penrose, MP for Weston-super-Mare, to propose a new Tranquillity Act. The Act will systematically measure and secure 'tranquillity' for the future. It has already received cross party support.
Mr Dunne said:
"Many of us in the Ludlow constituency can still stand outside our front doors and enjoy a moment's peace and quiet. But unless we act now will our children and grandchildren even remember the true meaning of tranquillity?
"The existing planning legislation pays lip service to the principle of protecting tranquillity. Yet our remaining pockets of peace are being eaten away by the threat from development, urban sprawl and increasing road or air traffic. It's not just our countryside, it's our green belt, our Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Even our parks and urban gardens.
"We are under attack on so many fronts. Government plans for massive house building programmes in Telford and westwards encroachment of the metropolitan West Midlands, the reduced height ceilings for the approach route to Manchester Airport and the increased use of our arterial roads such as the A49 and rural roads as cut-throughs and rat runs for HGVs misdirected by satellite navigation aids.
"I am supporting this Bill to help protect our rural areas in forward planning policy."
Mr Dunne explained:
"The Government has often used the term 'tranquillity' (1). Yet it has done nothing to identify or protect it. Existing planning law refers to its importance. However, no measurement of tranquillity has ever been produced and planning authorities seem unable to take it into account when determining planning applications.
"Instead, current policies threaten the dwindling tranquil areas of both national and local importance. Research by the Council for the Protection of Rural England has now produced a tool enabling every planning authority to define and measure its own local tranquillity."
Mr Penrose said:
"Unless we act now, it will be too late. We must protect our existing havens and guarantee that tranquillity doesn't become an obscure footnote in history.
"The Bill will give local people the tools to fight inappropriate new development and save our threatened tranquil areas for future generations."
CPRE Chief Executive Shaun Spiers said:
"Real protection for tranquillity is vital. We urgently need the policies to protect it permanently, and, where we can, to improve on what we have.
