Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

My Amendments Nos. 89 and 90 are rather more modest in ambition than my noble friend’s, but they cover two important things. My noble friend raised a very important matter about parish councils which will underlie quite a lot of what we say on the next part of the Bill: the great variety and difference there is between the different bodies called parish councils or the larger ones called town councils. Some are large, with a large budget, and function like a town council; others are small, covering a village community or even a community with no obvious village, and operate very differently. They operate under the same law and the same rules, but, as my noble friend pointed out, they can differ greatly. Amendment No. 89 would simply insert the duty of a district council to consult parish councils before it took any action under this clause. It seems reasonable that, if your elections are to be moved from one year to another, you ought to be asked first what you think about it. That ties in with what my noble friend said about choice. Amendment No. 90 is very specific and would apply in very few circumstances. Nevertheless, I can envisage circumstances in which the year of an election, under the Government’s proposals in this Bill, would be moved from one year to another and there would be a choice. For example, if a district council was moving back from whole-council elections to electing itself by halves every two years, the parish council election date would probably have to be moved under the Bill. There would be a choice of two years in which to do that. It seems reasonable that, under those circumstances, what the parish council thinks should prevail.