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Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

My Lords, this is the first time I shall have spoken on Report, so I shall declare appropriate interests as a member of Pendle Borough Council, of the executive of that council, and of various bodies—which nowadays I suppose we should call connected bodies—as a result of being on that council. I never got around to declaring, as everybody else did in Committee, how many years I spent on a local authority, partly because I thought that some noble Lords would think that that was a disadvantage—that because I had been there so long, I would be stuck in my ways, and not in line with this exciting modern thinking the Government are coming out with. For the record, however, it is 31 years, and if cumulative membership is included—of years when I have been on more than one principal authority—it is 52 years. That is all more information to horrify the noble Baroness, Lady Warsi. I shall speak to Amendment 10 in the name of my noble friend, Lady Hamwee, who unfortunately cannot be here today. I am standing in for her—at least I am standing in for my noble friend Lord Tope, who is standing in for my noble friend—