Cornwall (Structural Change) Order 2008

I cannot give a precise date, but I sense that it will not be too far off, because we have been looking at the matter for some time. In terms of the title of the council, we have always made it clear that we were creating a new animal, with a new set of responsibilities and a new profile. The title of the council will be the Cornwall Council, as specified in the order. We could either have made it a completely new legal entity, and gone through all the complications of creating a shadow council with elections and so on, or have done what we thought was best for local people and used the technical opportunity open to us to make it a continuing council for that purpose to reduce the disruption and bureaucratic intervention. We did the latter. The noble Lord asked about the timing of elections for parish councils. I am happy to reiterate what the Minister said in another place. We are trying to achieve some consistency between the dates of elections for various councils, but, as the Minister and others said in the other place, we are perfectly willing to consult the implementation executive. If there appears to be a widespread sense that we should have parish council elections for 2009, we could bring forward an amending order to make that change. I think that I have addressed the key points that the noble Lord made. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, for explaining where we are with Devon and Exeter, because it is important, too. On Question, Motion agreed to.