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Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I support my noble friend’s comments. I apologise for the absence of my noble friend Lady Warsi this afternoon. She is not at all well. Whereas I was planning to participate much more in the later stages of the Bill, I am now going to have to cope with doing so for most of this afternoon. I support the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, particularly in what he said about flexibility. It is all very well there being government guidance, but, as he said, there are many different types of consultation and some petitions are different from others. For example, if the closure of a school is proposed, thousands of people with children in that school at that time will submit a petition. You obviously have to consider that but it is rather different from getting a petition about some issue that the public are suddenly very concerned about. I would like the Minister to acknowledge that the provision is fully flexible.