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Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I support the amendments. The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, has highlighted the problems in two-tier authorities and, as the leader of a county council, obviously I recognise them. One tries to work with one’s district colleagues to resolve them. I am more concerne, however, with what could be called necessarily partner authorities, such as PCTs and so on. But there are also bodies over which local government should have some control; for example, Network Rail. We talked about anecdotal evidence; I have a problem in Frinton, a nice little town on the Essex coast. The town’s gates close it off from the rest of the world—Frinton used not to have a pub. The residents love the gates; however, for safety reasons, Network Rail wants to change them; therefore there has been a big petition. The county council is, of course, the highway authority; but Network Rail has a statutory power to change things and, as leader of the county council, I am getting the blame for it. I have received many e-mails and so on. There needs to be clarity because, although we received the petition, it was Network Rail’s decision in the end. I am sorry to add to the complications but we need to think through how one can deal with these matters effectively.