Greater London Authority Bill

Perhaps I may intervene on this one. As the leader of a local authority, this is something for the Local Government Bill that is coming up rather than for this legislation. The noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, has rather gone on about one particular planning application, and I do not think that one planning application makes the whole process for London. There is no doubt that although I am the leader of a large council, I do not always get all the information about what is happening in my area. I represent a large constituency in Essex, and I do not get informed about all the planning applications that are happening in that patch. We ought to put it into the Local Government Bill that local authority members ought to be informed. I am trying to find mechanisms for doing that in Essex, and it means having a team of officers looking at all the information to supply to members. The noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, said yesterday that local members did not know much detail about the planning application. There ought to be some mechanism whereby local authority members are involved. If you are not involved in planning, and you are busy looking after elderly people, you sometimes do not know about the planning applications in your patch. The noble Lord has a valid point that local authority members, certainly those for large London boroughs and large counties, do not always know what is going on in their patch. It might be different for smaller authorities. There ought to be some statutory requirement to allow elected members for that patch to know what is going on in their area.