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Rossington Inland Port

I am pleased to have been given the opportunity to discuss the importance of the Rossington inland port for the areas of Rossington, my constituency, Doncaster, and Yorkshire and Humberside. I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley, East and Mexborough (Jeff Ennis) is here, as well as my right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster, Central (Ms Winterton), who are supporting me in my endeavours to get a move on with the decisions that will help to make that inland port successful. A planning application for Rossington inland port was approved by Doncaster council's planning committee in November 2009. The application is a departure from the development plan and as such has been referred to the Minister, who is awaiting advice from the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber about whether it should be called in. I do not want the Minister to comment on the merits of the application, but I would like his assurance about the process. The Rossington inland port is a major rail freight interchange and, according to the council's assessment, it is capable of delivering more than 3,000 jobs—that figure is more if we accept the developer's forecast. Given the times in which we live—we rightly celebrate 100 jobs being created in local communities—we should take the prospect of 3,000 jobs with good heart and help to make the project happen. All statutory objectors either support the application or have no objections. The principal objectors are the Campaign to Protect Rural England and four parish councils. Only two letters of objection were received from the public. Other objectors supported the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, which withdrew its objections after discussions with the developers about nearby wetland land management. However, the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber has stated that issues with the Highways Agency need to be resolved before a decision is made on whether to call in the application. Apart from the green belt—although I do not underestimate that issue—the proposal is in line with national, regional and local policies. As such, I believe, as do my hon. Friends and many others, that exceptional circumstances have to be demonstrated, and are being demonstrated. The development should therefore be supported. The applicant has looked for alternative sites in the region and found that the Rossington site is the best. That assessment has been independently reviewed on behalf of the planning authority and has been found to be robust. The local planning authority has taken the view that there are exceptional circumstances, because of the regeneration potential in the area, that the impacts on the green belt are acceptable and that there are no alternative sites on which the development can be located. In the past week, an important report has looked at the cities and important towns of our country, and Doncaster and Barnsley have been cited as places where not enough progress has been made. I acknowledge that that is the case. A great deal has been achieved in the past 10 years or so, but there is more to be done to ensure that those communities, which relied on mining for generations, have a future in which the numbers of private sector jobs are equal to those in the public sector. This is an opportunity that I believe can benefit both towns.