Ealing North
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Steve Pound MP Ealing North |
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July 2003 I was that close. On Friday 11th.July my High Hedges Bill had its last chance on the floor of the House of Commons. After nine months work I was on the last lap and the Bill was seconds away from becoming law. The experience has certainly been an education. In the autumn of 2002 I drew a high number in the annual ballot for Private Members Bills. Having tried to deal with some heartbreaking cases in which decent ordinary people had their lives made an absolute misery by the malicious or unthinking cultivation of Leylandii trees by their neighbours I decided to take up the High Hedges Bill which had come before the House on four previous occasions. I genuinely doubted that anyone could object to a brief and effective Bill that would provide some hope for the forty thousand plus “hedge victims”. The Bill had cross party support and an identical Bill was introduced simultaneously in the Lords by the (Conservative) Baroness Trixie Gardner of Parkes. Preparing a Bill is far from a simple matter and I was plunged into extensive discussions with Civil Servants and Ministerial officials in order to produce a Bill that was workable and would not damage any existing legislation. The First Reading on the floor of the House was a formality and we then moved on to the Second Reading. Although welcomed by all sides of the House there were some objections made by one Chope – the Conservative Member of Parliament for Christchurch. He claimed to support the Bill but spoke against it at such length that it nearly fell at 2nd.Reading. The next stage in the Parliamentary process is the Committee stage in which the sponsor of the Bill identifies about a dozen concerned Members to go through the Bill line by line in Committee. In a spirit of inclusiveness I nominated Mr.Chope as a member of the committee and looked forward to discussing his concerns with him in detail. Alas, he did not bother to turn up for the Committee meeting – citing a “long standing speaking engagement”. In his absence the Bill passed its Committee stage unamended and returned to the House for Report and Third Reading on the 20th.June. Mr.Chope made up for his absence from the Committee on June 20th by talking the Bill out. This is a process by which any MP can drone on about a Bill until we reach 2.30pm – when the business (on Fridays) comes to an end. Mr.Chope claimed that my Bill to give householders the right to – after mediation and an objective analysis by the local Council - require their neighbours’ hedges to be reduced to a maximum height of two meters was, and I quote, “a greater threat to this green and pleasant land than Dutch Elm disease, the Great Storm and the Luftwaffe”. We were talked out on the 20th.and again on the 27th. On the 11th July .my Bill passed its report stage and was mere seconds away from becoming law. Then up spake Mr.Wilshire – MP for Spelthorne – and down went the Bill. The fact that one MP can wreck nine months work and shatter the hope of thousands may be seen as an indication of the strength of our democracy. I consider it to be a disgrace and a shameful page in parliamentary history. I hope that Messers Wilshire and Chope can live with their consciences. The Bill may be dead for today but it will come back, hopefully as a Government Bill in the new session. I would like to say that I am not bitter – but I am. High Hedges Bill details |
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| Disclaimer | Copyright | Designed by Bassam Mahfouz. Promoted by Julian Bell, The Labour Party, Ruskin Hall, 16 Church Road, W3 8PP on behalf of Steve Pound MP |
