Lord Bassam of Brighton (Lab)

My Lords, my task is very simple this afternoon, and that is to thank the Government and congratulate them on bringing forward Amendments 245 and 265, which will ensure that proper enforcement action can now be taken against those who breach parking conditions and park on pavements. This has long been a problem in local government; I can remember it back when I was a local authority leader in the 1980s and 1990s. London has benefited from enforcement greatly and now this is to be shared across the rest of England. The Government should be congratulated on that. The Minister was extremely generous when we were in Committee and said that he would look at this favourably. He has done so, along with his colleague Lillian Greenwood, who I also thank for the time that she has given to this issue. Local authorities up and down the country will be enormously grateful, but the most grateful will be those who must use wheelchairs, buggies and any other form of transportation to move along our pavements unimpeded and to make those pavements more useful to us as pedestrians. I was happy to put my name to the amendments and my noble friend Lord Blunkett, who cannot be here today, asked me to record his thanks to the Government as well.