Clause 12
Local Democracy, Economic Developmentand Construction Bill [Lords]
6:00 pm
Stewart Jackson (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; Peterborough, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman has made a good case and has explained the rationale behind the Liberal Democrat amendments. I would fight shy of anything that reduces the validity of petitions in the remit of quasi-judicial bodies. As a London borough councillor, I served on the licensing panel and the planning and regulatory committee in the good old days when we had a proper committee system and did not have first and second-class councillors, as we do now. I was always mindful of the importance of a petition in informing the debate, even when further judicial determinations were necessary.
A practical ramification of the Licensing Act 2003 and the secondary legislation attached to it is that the consultation procedures on matters such as varying the opening times of licensed premises and restaurants are very prescriptive. It is important that we have—to use a ghastly term because I cannot think of a better one—an holistic approach. To give a simple example, the McDonald’s in Peterborough city centre sought to open virtually 24 hours a day. As the constituency MP, I did not think that that should happen. I was told that as a result of case law and regulations, I was not permitted—even as the MP for Peterborough—to comment on that because I was not a local resident. However, had I organised a petition it might have been a different matter. If there were local residents on the petition, it would have been a valid objection to those proposals.
I am in sympathy with the idea that petitions need to be complementary to quasi-judicial processes, and the Minister should take that into account when responding.