Clause 6 - Street lighting and cleaning
London Olympics Bill
4:00 pm
Jacqui Lait (Shadow Minister (London), Local Government Affairs & Communities; Beckenham, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 56, in page 4, line 44, leave out 'may arrange' and insert 'must contract'.
I bring this issue up because it would be useful to get the Minister's view on it. Like so many of the amendments, amendment No. 56 raises a question to which we wish to have a response.
The Bill states that the ODA
''may arrange with an authority responsible for cleaning or lighting a highway''.
We should like to explore the implications for private-sector contracts, because so much of the lighting and cleaning of highways is already contracted out and many local authorities have contracts with private organisations. I have come across one that is beginning what is potentially a 30-year contract.
If there had to be variations in the contracts, those would have to be negotiated between the local authority and the contractor—at a greater cost to the local authorities and hence, one assumes, to council tax payers. It would be useful to know who would bear that cost. Would the council tax payers bear it, or the ODA? If the Minister cannot give an immediate response, I shall be happy to withdraw the amendment and return to the issue on Report, or for him to write to Committee members about it.