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Policing and Crime Bill

According to the Local Government Association—which, as the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, pointed out, has asked for this amendment—the process that has to be undertaken now if there is an objection is complicated and circuitous. When there is an objection from constituents to a particular event, the local authority will have to lobby the police. The noble Lord exaggerated when he said that the power might be used against the village fête or the charities because it is highly unlikely that a local authority will object to an event planned by some of its constituents. It would be the exception rather than the rule for the local authority to object. In circumstances where a local authority believed that disorder would be created, it is an unnecessarily roundabout system for it to have to lobby the police, in a very short space of time, to have an event cancelled. I am glad that the noble Lord said that he will reconsider the matter before Report, but I hope that he will listen carefully to the Local Government Association in the mean time.