Sustainable Communities Bill

I support new clause 6. I should like to draw to the Minister’s attention a possible early application of the Bill were it to pass into law. In the borough of Kettering, we have a particular problem with parking in the town centre. For many years, that has been the responsibility of the local police. The local police do many wonderful things in catching criminals and bringing them to justice, but it is fair to say that they have not had a terribly strong record on parking enforcement. Indeed, if I tell the Minister that Kettering currently enjoys the services of just one traffic warden who is now largely funded by Kettering borough council, as opposed to the police, perhaps he will realise the extent of our problem. This extends to the whole issue of the decriminalisation of on-street parking enforcement. For years, throughout the country, local police forces have been given the responsibility for enforcing on-street car parking. They have not been doing it properly, and local councils have taken up powers to undertake those procedures themselves. However, I am not aware that in Northamptonshire the moneys that the local police were meant to be spending on parking enforcement have in any sense been transferred to the local authorities who have taken on those responsibilities. In Northamptonshire, the county council has now taken responsibility for on-street parking enforcement for most of the district areas in the county—but not, I am happy to say, in Kettering. I serve as a borough councillor in Kettering, and we are going to try to hold our ground. In our view, on-street parking enforcement would best be done by the borough council, which is fully aware of the needs of local people, local sensitivities and the particular issues that arise. Northamptonshire county council has many good qualities, but I am afraid that being aware of the particular local sensitivities of people in Kettering with regard to traffic issues is not one of them. Kettering borough council does have responsibility for off-street car parking and raises a considerable amount of local revenue from that. In our view, it would make sense to put on-street parking enforcement together with off-street parking enforcement and run an incredibly efficient town centre parking enforcement operation. That would be to the benefit of residents and shoppers in the town because it would help to create a new vibrancy in the town centre, which is plagued by many different parking difficulties. If the Bill becomes law, there could well be an early application from Kettering borough council, having consulted the local police and the county council, to take over on-street parking enforcement in Kettering borough. If that were the case, as the local MP I would want to draw that to the attention of the Secretary of State and urge him or her to approve that application. At the moment, the mechanism whereby Kettering borough council can advance its cause is not clear to me. It is locked in a dispute with the county council that will be difficult to resolve, despite the fact that on many issues, at a local level, there is a lot of good will between the two local authorities. That is best evidenced by the recent discussions locally about the Government’s intention to try to bounce the people of Northamptonshire into a unified local authority, which I am pleased to say local councillors at borough, district and county levels, after much debate and discussion, universally agreed to reject in favour of enhanced local co-operation at three levels of local government—the county council, the district and borough councils, and the parish councils. I believe that the enhanced local government network initiative in Northamptonshire will be one of the leading lights in the country for the way in which local authorities deliver their services effectively to local people. A good example is the customer service centre at Kettering borough council in the middle of the town. A local resident who goes to the customer service centre is not immediately aware of which local authority runs that centre, which is a joint initiative between the county council, Kettering borough council and other local agencies. That well run centre aims to ensure that the local resident who turns up asking for a local service gets what he or she wants in the quickest possible time. There is no particular pride in ownership—all the local councils agree that that resident should be served as quickly and helpfully as possible. I use the opportunity of the debate to flag up to the Minister for Local Government that I hope that he accepts the new clause and that the Bill becomes law. If the Bill does become law, I hope that an early application will come his way from Kettering borough council to try to resolve the local parking problems.