Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I am delighted to enter the debate at this point in the Bill and to reply to the amendment of the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, although I am not able to agree with it. We have been discussing local government credentials today and I have some good news and some bad news: the good news is that I have been a town and a district councillor; the bad news is that that was more than 25 years ago, so I hope the Committee will bear with me. I thank noble Lords for their contributions. London is the only part of the country that is not able to have parishes or parish councils. Unlike elsewhere in England, local authorities cannot create parishes and local electors in the capital cannot petition for a parish. We can see no compelling reason for this anomaly being allowed to continue. We believe it is only fair that Londoners should have the same rights as the rest of England, if they so choose—we are not being prescriptive about this—to be represented by a parish council. This is why the Labour Party included in its manifesto for the 2005 general election its commitment to address this anomaly. As with the rest of the country, parish councils would only be established in London where there was support for the idea. I believe the general thrust of the remarks of both the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and the noble Baroness, Lady Scott of Needham Market, was that where there was support and local people wanted such parishes to be set up, they could be established through this legislation. In London, there will also be the same possibility as elsewhere to choose a style for the parish, perhaps better to reflect the local urban area, a style such as a community council or a neighbourhood council. The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, referred to urban areas. Experience in other parts of the UK, including urban areas, have shown that local people can benefit from parish councils by giving them a stronger voice in shaping local services where they live and the power to make decisions on local priorities. In the debates in another place concerns were raised that extremists may use parish councils as a vehicle to further their cause. However, there is no evidence to suggest that that is more likely in London than in other areas of the Midlands or the north. Under the current legislation, the Government have created a number of parish councils in urban areas where local people can petition for them, such as New Frankley in Birmingham—an area I know well—and Blakelaw and North Fenham in Newcastle upon Tyne—