Localism Bill

Lord Hughes of Woodside Excerpts

Thursday 30th June 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Greaves]

My Lords—

[Lord Hughes of Woodside]

He has remembered.

[Lord Greaves]

The noble Lord is quite right; I remember what it was now. I was so carried out away by the Minister’s rhetoric that it cleared my mind.

The Minister said, rightly, that these decisions should be the responsibility of the local authority if we are to be localist. As he said, though, it clearly says in subsection (4) of his long new amendment about special case petitions that it is a statutory process by which there is a statutory right to appeal or to instigate a review. Surely it is not the job of a local authority to decide what is a statutory matter. A statutory matter is set out in law, so there might be a bit of interpretation to take place but by and large the local authority’s hands would be tied.