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English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 218. I look forward to hearing the noble Lord, Lord Pack, and others speaking to Amendments 219 and 220.

In responding on an earlier group, the Minister referred to the number of civil parishes in Cumbria. I would like to place on the record that, in North Yorkshire, there are 729 civil parishes, of which 662 are parish or town councils. It is probably one of the largest, if not the largest, county in the country, covering 8,037 square kilometres. That is on the North York Moors website; unfortunately, it does not give it in square miles.

Against that backdrop, I hope the Government will look favourably on a plea that local authorities should be able to meet on the same basis that we in this House meet, which is that, if you are attending a committee, you can attend remotely in hybrid form. For some reason that is beyond me, we are not extending that possibility to local authorities. Given the fact that North Yorkshire is possibly the most rural and sparsely populated county, I would like to give an example based on it. If a councillor is to attend council meetings in Northallerton, where the North Yorkshire Council—a combined authority, against my better judgment—now meets, on a good day that will take one and a half hours going one way, given that the roads are highly congested and, at this time of year, often quite dangerous with fog, snow, ice and other such challenges. On a bad day, it could take a lot longer.

8 pm

I have the honour of being the honorary president of Pickering Conservative Club, the members of which like to meet for their AGM on the last Friday in January. I have pleaded with them a number of times that perhaps we could meet on another occasion, but they choose to meet on the last Friday in January every year. On one occasion, the snow was falling quite lightly as I arrived for the meeting, which takes place at 7.30 pm to enable those who are working to attend. By the time I left, Sutton Bank was closed, and I thought it would be better to go via the A64, round by

York and back up the A19. It took me the best part of four hours to go that distance from Pickering back to the cottage at Thornton-le-Moor, near Thirsk.

Councillors are meeting on a much more regular basis than that. I put to the Minister winding up this short debate that it seems a bit inconsiderate of us—given that we enable Peers, if it is better for them, to attend our committee meetings remotely in a hybrid format—not to extend that possibility to councillors under certain conditions. As I have said in the Explanatory Note, what I am seeking here is to ensure that local authorities can hold council meetings online, for example, to save travel to the council chamber in the event of inclement weather or if they are temporarily incapacitated.

Obviously, it is for the department or the Government to come forward with regulations to set out the conditions to permit this. I believe it is unfair on the councillors—and unfair on those whom they represent and who have elected them—when, with the best will in the world, they wish to attend their chambers but are being prevented from doing so.

I understand that the weather is probably more challenging in Richmond, Pickering and other parts of North Yorkshire than, for example, in Richmond, London. However, there should be the possibility for councillors to undertake their duties in these circumstances, and I cannot understand why we are permitting ourselves to have that privilege and not extending the same privilege to them. I prefer the wording in Amendment 218, although I understand the similar desires being expressed in Amendments 219 and 220.

To conclude, I am extremely grateful to the National Association of Local Councils, which is very supportive of Amendment 218 which seeks to ensure that local authorities can hold council meetings in an online or hybrid format under the circumstances I have set out. It believes the Bill should be amended to make provision for remote meetings and to make reforms to standards regimes to make this possible. With those few words, I beg to move.