Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing assistance to Dorset local planning authority in to consider the merits of erecting a statue of Mary Anning proposed by the Mary Anning Rocks campaign in Lyme Regis.

Local planning authorities have a statutory target of 8 weeks to determine planning applications for minor development, and it is for them to ensure they have the resources in place to ensure this target is met. In this case, given the importance of this proposal to the community, I would expect a decision on this application to be prioritised by Dorset Council.