Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I shall be brief. It is now 40 years since I was a councillor in the London Borough of Camden, and I am not going to produce examples drawn from that local government experience long ago. However, by analogy, I shall make reference to the decisions I used to have to make as the Member of Parliament for the Cities of London and Westminster, where 14 times as many people work than in the average consistency. Therefore, every time a business constituent wrote to one of my average constituency colleagues in the House of Commons, 14 people wrote to me, thus causing something of an imbalance in the ordinary correspondence. But no taxation without representation: they were writing about matters which their companies were perfectly entitled to follow up. On the common sense issue, because the two Cities are where they are, there were also people who wrote to me after getting into difficulties with parking, having come from a long way away. It was perfectly clear, given that the two Cities cover quite a large area, that the individuals who wrote to me would not have the faintest prayer of knowing which local councillor was responsible for the parking attendants working for Westminster City Council or the Corporation of London. Because they were not an excessive number, I would take up matters on their behalf, and thereby hangs a moral tale. One of the people who wrote to me in just that way was a photographer from Norwich who had contracts all over the country. Out of good sense, because he was used to being fined by the parking attendant ostensibly because his wheels were outside the white lines, he took a photograph of every parking space in which he parked his car so that he would have evidence to support a complaint about the fine which had been levied on him. As a consequence, the Corporation of London decided that all its parking attendants would carry cameras so that when they accused somebody of an offence they would have documentary evidence which would be conclusive if the man complained. So I wholly agree with my noble friend and the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, that common sense is a very valuable instrument to enable one to make these decisions.