Mr. R. C. Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning if he will undertake to see representatives of local authorities who wish to make alternative proposals as to areas or boundaries or to discuss general issues on the White Paper proposals.
§ Mr. CroslandLocal authorities have recently been invited to put in writing their comments and proposals as to areas or boundaries, and at a later stage we shall be holding local conferences. I want every authority to have a fair and equal chance to make its views known, and I think this can best be assured by following the procedure indicated in the White Paper rather than by receiving a series of separate deputations.
Where an individual authority or specific groups of authorities wish to urge points of a general kind on which the Government have not already announced a conclusion in the White Paper, I hope that we can follow the procedure that worked well in the stage we have just completed. This was that authorities send their written comments to me and to the local authority associations, which co-ordinate them and discuss them with the Government.