Manchester City Council Bill [Lords](By Order)

As far as I am aware, there has been one petition in relation to Greater Manchester. It was presented to the other place, when the Bill was being considered there. The petitioner—quite rightly under our procedures—had the opportunity to be heard by Members of the other place, and it is important that people who object to a proposal are able to make their case there. In fact, I think the individual named wanted to get rid of the parts of the Bill dealing with pedlars. I understand the arguments for pedlars and the arguments of those who seek to defend the rights of legitimate small traders. None of us wants them to disappear. As I said, the sellers of mini-kites and those who add fun and flavour to a hot day by selling children's balloons cause little nuisance and none of us would want that activity to be snuffed out. However, we want recognition that some people with a pedlars licence abuse the system—people who grab their goods and run down the street quickly when approached by the local authority. Such people are difficult to apprehend and control. They are engaged in activities that are not in the public interest; they sell inadequate goods and services and offer no redress to the customers they short-change. They operate in a way that the right hon. Gentleman would not countenance from traders in shops in his constituency. He should not expect the people of Canterbury, Bournemouth, Leeds or Manchester, or any of the areas that already have the powers or want them, to forgo regulation simply from the romantic view that all pedlars must be a good thing—they are not.