Clause 63
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill
10:00 am
Alistair Burt (Shadow Minister (Communities and Local Government), Communities and Local Government; North East Bedfordshire, Conservative)
I am not complaining about the devolutionary power in the Bill. I accept that. As I said at the beginning of my remarks on the clause, the National Association of Local Councils has welcomed the measure and so do people in most parishes, because it offers more local control of their affairs. However, the sticking point is when a problem arises. All these things look great when everyone agrees with everyone else, and taking account of the needs of the locality and so on sounds great—until there are two opposing factions and the rubber hits the road. It is all very well to have appeal available through judicial review, but we all know the problems of judicial review. It is enormously expensive and tremendously uncertain. No parish council will quickly commit its resources to such a thing.
In a very difficult situation where a council has taken a political decision to remove a parish council, there would be no redress for a parish caught up in that sort of squeeze except through judicial review. That is what the Under-Secretary has said, but is she really content that that is safe and sure? Would it not now be better—for disputed cases, not those in which there is agreement—to have some other power of appeal that is less expensive and would safeguard the position of a parish council under threat?