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Lords Amendment: No. 45, in page 8, line 38, at end insert:
(aa) every parish which immediately before the passing of this Act was co-extensive with a rural district".
§ The Under-Secretary of State for the Environment (Mr. Keith Speed)I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Miss Harvie Anderson)With this Amendment we are to discuss Lords Amendments Nos. 54, 58 to 64, and 70 and 71.
§ Mr. SpeedThe 11 Amendments taken together seem a rather long and complicated way of doing things. They provide for a separate parish council for the parish of an existing rural district of one parish. There are only three such rural district councils, Alston with Garrigill, which I understand is north-east of Penrith, Disley, in the Manchester area, and Tintwhistle, in the Peak District. At present, under Section 43(3) of the 1933 Act, there is no need for a parish council in these cases. The rural district council is deemed to be the parish council, and has all parish functions as well as rural district ones. Unfortunately, this provision does not of itself preserve the existing rural district council as a new parish council, so the Amendments are required to do so.
Specifically, the Amendments provide that these three rural district councils shall have elections at the same time as the new districts in 1973. The councillors shall be both rural district councillors and parish councillors, and when the rural district council is abolished on 1st April, 1974, they will continue as parish councillors.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.