Localism Bill

My Lords, speaking as yet another dinosaur who remembers the old system and who was a councillor and is still a councillor in the London Borough of Barnet, I think that the proposal to allow local authorities to choose whether they return to the committee system is very welcome. The only thing I disagree with, and my noble friend Lord Tope obviously disagrees with, is that one has to wait three years before a local authority can make that decision. I cannot see the logic of that. I have had the benefit of being a cabinet member, as they are called, in a joint administration in the London Borough of Barnet and I am currently an opposition member in that borough. When I was a cabinet member, one of 10 people exercising full executive power in the London Borough of Barnet, I enjoyed the power wonderfully. I used to give little speeches saying that democracy was not being exercised as 10 people had executive power but 53 people in the ruling parties and in the opposition had no real role to play and roles were found for them rather than their playing a constructive part, as they did under the committee system. Therefore, I have experience of being in power and in opposition and I still believe that the committee system is the right one. Under the system we are discussing, back-bench members in the ruling parties and in the opposition feel that they do not have much of a role to play. I have had many meetings with people from other local authorities and I have yet to find anyone who feels that overview and scrutiny committees are as beneficial to local councillors as the committee system which enabled them to be involved in making democratic decisions. The current system with executives encourages tribalism within councils. I relate just one anecdote in that regard. I was on a minor committee which had executive power over environmental decisions and I asked for an electronic traffic signal which told people that they could not go over 30 miles an hour. I was the only Liberal Democrat member on the committee, which also comprised Labour and Conservative members. Everybody save one person on the committee supported the request for an electronic traffic signal. However, the then Conservative administration had obviously instructed the chairman of that committee to turn down the request and move it up the chain to the cabinet level. The cabinet comprised 10 people running a borough with a revenue expenditure of £500 million per year. They turned down my request for an electronic traffic signal. That may be a bad example of how the executive system operates, but there are many such examples. A committee system which enables the public to see what is happening and in which other people have a role is much sought after. All this amendment seeks to do is to allow local authorities to take the relevant decision when they want to rather than having to wait three years in the case of London, or possibly four years in other authorities, until the next local elections. I support the amendment.