§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithI beg to move Amendment No. 60, in page 12, line 6, leave out 'not less than two-thirds of the members thereon' and insert:
a majority of the whole number of the members of the council'.The amendment seeks to alter the arrangements for changing the name of an authority by providing that, instead of a majority of two-thirds of the members present and voting, a majority of the whole membership of the authority is required to effect a change of name.Hon. Members who served on the Standing Committee will remember that the hon. Member for Dundee, West (Mr. Doig) raised this point in Committee—I refer hon. Members to column 1244 of the OFFICIAL REPORT—in a very practical and sensible way. He drew attention to a point which we had not fully appreciated. There was general agreement in Committee that the Bill as it stood requiring a majority only of two-thirds of the members present and voting could result in a change of name being made by a very small proportion of the members of the council. The mathematics of the hon. Gentleman were wholly persuasive to me.
In tabling the amendment we are simply adopting the hon. Gentleman's suggestion that the requirement should be for an absolute majority of the members of the council.
§ Amendment agreed to.