Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

We return here to the issue of defining the term ““local people””, which we debated on the first day in Committee when considering the duty of local councils to promote understanding of democracy. We had an interesting debate, but I am afraid that the Government’s reasoning did not convince us of the need to set out prescriptive definitions on the face of the Bill. However, as I suspect that the duty in Chapter 1 is more or less meaningless, the confusion does not matter as much as it does here. The business of petitions goes to the heart of local democracy. Quite why the Government think it is up to them to decide who can start a petition and submit it to a local authority is mystifying. In the debate last week, the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, cited the example of someone who uses a local authority’s swimming pool but lives outside the authority boundary. Such a scenario is easy to envisage. A person might pay to use a swimming pool twice a week or even every day but would not be considered a valid signatory to a petition, say, against the closure of that pool. Indeed, under the Government’s scheme, the local authority need not even consider how to bring its petition scheme to the attention of such a person. That is just one example and I am sure that there are plenty of others—more than Members of the Committee and officials could dream up. However, I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, will bring them to our attention as the Bill proceeds. Every area of this country is different. Each locality has its own quirks and needs, so it is entirely appropriate that local authorities should apply their own criteria and use common sense to decide who they will allow to petition them. We do not need to get bogged down in arguments about who would fall under the definition of, "““persons who live, work or study””" in a given local authority area. We can simply take the common-sense approach and leave these matters in the hands of local authorities themselves.