Clause 72 - Determination of application
Licensing Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Mr Mark Field (Cities of London and Westminster, Conservative)
I shall speak briefly in support of my hon. Friend's amendments. He makes a valid point about geography. A local authority area might be dozens of miles across, and it might be difficult to have a personal hearing.
My hon. Friend drew an analogy in relation to planning committee meetings. That is a curiosity that I have found even within the confines of two neighbouring London boroughs—the one on which I served as a councillor, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and the one that I currently represent in Parliament, the City of Westminster. They have very different policies on planning meetings. In Kensington and Chelsea, there is an automatic right for a would-be objector to have a public hearing at a planning meeting—[Interruption.]