Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I shall speak also to Amendment 7 in my name. If Clause 1 is to be in the Bill, there is a striking omission: the role and duties of a local authority councillor. It was said in the previous debate that that is still little understood. In my experience, that is so in all sorts of ways. Good councils of all persuasions are now operating shadow councillor schemes. I have been shadowed myself by a number of people who are not necessarily interested in becoming a councillor but who are interested in knowing more about what is involved and how the system works. It seems to me, and to my noble friend in whose name the amendment stands, that a very important part of the duties here should be the duty to promote a better understanding of the work and role of a councillor, which is inherent in understanding the democratic functioning of local government. I believe that the Bill would benefit from an explicit reference to that. Amendment 7 requires local authorities to set out, as part of this instructive process, their arrangements for consultation. I would make a distinction between consultation, conducted under a number of options, any one of which might be adopted, and public information, which is sometimes called consultation, but which is much more about explaining to people why something has to happen, whether they are wholly in favour of it or not. It is setting out arrangements, explaining to people how a local authority takes its decisions, who takes the decisions and how the public may express their views and influence decisions. That is the purpose of Amendments 3 and 7. I beg to move.