Bournemouth Borough Council Bill [Lords]

It is, and I plead with the sponsors of the Bill to make some concession to common sense. As currently drafted, clause 5(1)(d) does not make any sense at all and is oppressive beyond all measure. The case for leaving it out and getting on without it is extremely strong. Amendment 13 would leave out, in line 34 on page 3, the words "any part of". It is an alternative but much less adequate way to mitigate against the worst impact of subsection (1)(d). The amendment would mean that a pedlar""must not begin so to occupy a location"—" or, in my preferred wording, a position—""which is nearer than a minimum distance of 50 metres"" from another person. The expression "any part of" gives credence to the concern that I expressed earlier when introducing my amendments to replace the word "location" with the word "position", which is that the drafters of the Bill have it in mind that a "location" might be quite a wide area. If it were not, they would not need to include the words""any part of which is nearer than a minimum distance of 50 metres"." It would be quite easy to measure 50 metres from a spot where one was standing selling flowers or whatever, but from what part of that position or location should that be done? That wording confirms my suspicion and that of pedlars that in using the word "location", the promoters are trying to introduce a system of measuring not from a particular spot or position but from a wide area. We must then ask what we mean by that location or area and how to measure the 50 metres minimum distance from the nearest part of it to "any part of" another""location for the time being so occupied by another person"." Government draftsmen would find such drafting intolerable in Government legislation—it cannot be good legislation. I can understand people asking why we must go into such detail—