Clause 8
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
5:15 pm
Robert Syms (Shadow Minister (Local Government), Communities and Local Government; Poole, Conservative)
The clause deals with changes to boundaries. There have always been modest changes to local government boundaries, usually because of a growing housing estate, the sides of a road straddling a boundary, or a rural parish being added to a borough or a town simply because it made sense in respect of emptying the dustbins and other basic services. During debate on the Bill, the issue was raised occasionally of extending the boundaries of towns or cities from where they might have been drawn in mediaeval or Victorian times because the communities had expanded since then.
Clause 9 covers a number of constraints. Will the Minister set out in a little more detail how the process would operate? If Leicester wanted to expand into neighbouring boroughs, could it do so? Normally, the boundary committee would undertake a review of all local authority boundaries. I can understand a local authority asking the boundary committee to review a particular boundary issue, but the Bill states that the boundary committee may “on its own initiative” undertake an inquiry. I wonder what that means. Will the boundary committee go marauding round, trying to expand our cities and annex suburban communities? Am I making a more sinister interpretation of the Bill? I hope that the Minister can give an elegant reply on the subject.