Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 91: 91: Clause 55, page 28, line 4, at end insert— ““( ) A county council in a two-tier area that has at least one electoral division which returns more than one councillor shall within six months of the coming into force of this Part make a request under subsection (1) for a review of any such division or divisions.”” The noble Lord said: This amendment does not need a great deal of discussion, but I thought that it was worth running through what appears to be a wish by central government to encourage more local authorities to move towards single-member, as opposed to multi-member, wards. This is certainly associated with a wish that local authorities that elect every year by thirds, or three years out of four by thirds, should move to whole-council elections every four years. I am not sure that central government should be taking a view on whether single-member or multi-member wards are good or bad. It seems to me that that should basically be left to local discretion. However, a number of issues arise from it which come from tradition as much as anything else, and it is a tradition based on sensible things. Large county councils with large county divisions have traditionally had single-member electoral divisions. That has worked because they are large both in area and often in terms of the number of people in each ward and each division, and a single-member division is therefore sensible. On the other hand, there has been a move fairly recently to increase the number of county electoral divisions that elect two county councillors, often resulting in large and sprawling divisions. The authorities ought to be asked to look at that, although the decisions should be basically local. In large or small urban authorities, multi-member wards are a good idea, whether the elections are by thirds or whole-county elections, because they provide people with a choice of councillors. Councillors are not infallible, although sometimes some of them think they are. Sometimes it is good to have a choice of who represents you in your ward. Sometimes that involves different parties, but even if it is the same party, some people may be very good while others are hopeless. People go through bad patches in their lives; they may be ill and unable to serve the people as well as they might have done previously. There ought not to be a presumption that single-member seats are better than multi-member seats, and the Government ought to pull back from what seems to be a current wish to move more authorities to become single-member wards. I beg to move.