City of Westminster Bill [HL]

My Lords, I follow what the previous two speakers said, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Lucas. I follow the noble Lord, Lord Graham of Edmonton, in declaring an interest as a joint president of London Councils. We hear that Westminster is a very particular borough. It occurs to me that it may not be quite as particular as it used to be. London is growing and not just on the fringes; the characteristics of the centre are now more widely spread. Other boroughs suffer the stresses and have the interests that, in recent history, were more confined to Westminster: parts of Kensington and Chelsea, the southern part of Islington now and Hackney, over longer history, and, of course, the City of London where there must have been issues relating to market traders and pedlars. I, for one, am very happy to see the shopping magnets dispersed around London and the shopping opportunities more widely spread. The same issue applies to commercial areas; we are used to thinking of the City of London and the City of Westminster as the major commercial areas. That is relevant to news vendors. It is not the same now. You only have to look at the number of people pouring out of London Bridge station and not crossing London Bridge to realise that the south bank of London is a very vibrant and important commercial area. Like other speakers, I view markets as complementary to other types of retail. I do not think this is the right time to make market trading harder, either for the public or for the traders, unless it is to achieve an investment, not to prettify, but to make more comfortable and update some of the facilities available to those who work in markets and who shop in them. One has only to think of experiences on mainland Europe, where markets fulfil a different and more important role in people's lives than they do here. It should not be a matter of personal aesthetics, such as look or smell, but I agree that the smell of hot dogs is pretty revolting. That does not apply to all food. Last summer, I was in Edinburgh when there was a French—perhaps that word should be in inverted commas—market and the smells from it were irresistible. The noble Lord, Lord Lucas, did not quite say that he was talking about the control of goods, but markets, like other things, respond to the market. The news vendors’ situation is changing because of free papers. Five years ago, they were not accosted by people trying to get rid of their supply of papers. This gives rise to issues of litter, recycling facilities and so on. The noble Lord, Lord Lucas, made a very important point about pedlars. We are about to deal on Report with the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill, which has clauses about petitions. The point has been made, quite rightly, by the Government and very much by the Opposition that a petition to a local authority can take pretty much any form. It does not have to be formal. This House, this Parliament, should be as open to representations as local authorities are and should not require them to be made in a particular form in order for them to be considered seriously. The Opposed Bill Committee will be the right place for the detail of the Bill to be considered. One is accustomed at the end of a Second Reading debate on a Bill such as this to wish the Bill a fair wind. I have some reservations on this occasion, and I hope that we see the right result at the end of the proceedings.