Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

moved Amendment No. 204DA: 204DA: Clause 104, page 66, line 8, leave out from ““England”” to ““or”” in line 9 The noble Lord said: We are concerned that the Bill fails to consider the complexities of three-tier authorities with regard to community governance reviews. The Bill states that unitary authorities and district councils are considered to be principal authorities with powers to undertake community governance reviews that can create and, as we have heard today, abolish parish councils. It is particularly worrying that these so-called principal authorities can initiate community governance reviews, while counties will be merely informed but not actually involved in the process of creating and extending parishes. The amendment seeks to ensure that county councils are also considered principal authorities with exactly the same rights to carry out these reviews as district councils. The relationship between counties and parishes is generally good—obviously, it varies in different parts of the country; I am very knowledgeable about the Essex experience—with a mutual understanding of each other’s needs existing between the two tiers. In fact, it is generally county council officers who go to parish meetings, not district council officers. I have eight parishes; I go with my officers to meetings and we do most of the talking because the district officers are not there. It would be remiss not to utilise this knowledge and understanding when creating—and, indeed, abolishing—parish councils. It would be considered unacceptable to make decisions, for example, on planning and transport, without the involvement of all the tiers—county councils, district councils and parish councils. Given the democratic and community-focused role of the parish councils, there needs to be a similar level of inclusivity to determine their existence. Surely the Minister can visualise the bickering that will occur between the different tiers even if, as the Under-Secretary of State said in the other place, there will be no conflict because county councils will have no governance role and no say in the matter. Does the Minister not understand the influence of county council decisions even on the most local tier of government such as the parish? Of even greater concern is that if a parish council thought it was being treated unfairly—or, indeed, facing termination—there is no real appeal system. We were reassured in another place that such concerns would not arise as there was always the judicial process. We strongly disagree and argue profusely that this is not an option for parish councils. Very few, if any, parish councils have the resources and time to go through such an expensive and uncertain process. While we understand the Government’s concerns about the disagreements that might occur if counties were included as principal councils, we would argue that greater conflict would occur if they were not given the same powers to undertake these community reviews. At the moment, Essex has 12 district councils but around 30 communities. The county council wishes to devolve money and the decision-making process to those 30 communities, but if we did not have some say in the matter, the whole process would fall apart. We support devolution and we hope to see the principle behind this part of the Bill introduced in other areas. However, we wish to see the Government acknowledge the importance of county councils in this part of the Bill. I beg to move.