Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

In our part of the world we always say, ““people who live, work, study or play””, but then we live in a very beautiful part of the world where there are lots of things to do for play. I have to be careful what I say, but I do not think that what the Minister is saying is sensible. That is not the real world. The real world is that you receive a petition. You do not go through it to find out how many people on it live in California or Melbourne. You get a petition about a problem and you deal with it. That is the real world if you take petitions seriously. I have signed petitions in France. I signed a petition against building a railway tunnel through the middle of the Pyrenees. I thought that it would be quite amusing to sign it with my title, which I normally do not do on such things, and they were absolutely thrilled. They thought that it was wonderful that they had a Lord signing their petition. I do not imagine that whoever they presented it to said, ““It is not valid because we do not want a British Lord signing the petition; he is not allowed to””. The Government seem to be obsessed with foreigners and people living in another country. The point of a petition is to raise a particular problem or opportunity. That is what we should concentrate on, not who signed it. If half the people who sign a petition about the state of the pavements outside this building are local and half live in another country, it does not matter. A problem is being raised that must be sorted out. At the very least, the council should discuss it. That is not a burden; the burden, if I may say so, is the incredibly prescriptive and detailed regulation that the Government are imposing on local authorities. That is what they will find is the burden: having to cope with this ludicrous and ridiculous legislation. Coping with a petition about the state of pavements that happens to be signed by a lot of people who do not live in Westminster is not a burden at all; the council will deal with it in the normal way. Our debate is increasingly in fantasy land. If the Bill is passed and councils spend time drawing up these formal petition schemes, I wonder what proportion of petitions they will end up dealing with—how many valid petitions there will be under the scheme. I am starting to think that it might be very low, 5 per cent or 10 per cent, and the world will carry on as normal. But that would not be a satisfactory outcome. If the legislation is to work properly, it ought to encompass the great majority of petitions that councils receive, but that will not be not the case. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 84 withdrawn. Amendments 85 and 86 not moved.