WESTMINSTER BILL LINKS
One of the starting points for the High
Hedges(Scotland)Bill will be the existing legislation introduced in England and
Wales. The Westminster legislation underwent many debates over five years
having fallen at least on three occasions to undemocratic wrecking amendments
by a small clique of MPs. The final Stephen Pound MP Bill evolved as one of the
most heavily debated and revised Private Members Bills and when it fell to
around 100 wrecking amendments despite virtually universal MP and Government
acclaim, an rescue route to legislation was provided by amendment of the
Westminster Antisocial Behaviour Bill in November 2003.
Because of devolution, Scottish hedge victims
were unable to benefit from the English Bill despite having possibly paid for
it in general taxation.
Whilst this has been a great frustration to
Scothedge campaigners as long suffering hedge abused, there are benefits to be
gained from translating the English Bill to meet the Scottish administrative
realities and to make use of our own “hindsight” ability to scrutinise the
legislation to aspire to a better Bill. This has been the stated opinion of the
Scottish Executive when questioned about why unique Scottish legislation was
appropriate.
This page provides links to “the English
Experience” so that the Westminster High Hedges legislation can be used as a
benchmark against which to judge whether the “Tartan” version does achieve a
better Bill. It will also allow hedge
victims to see the nature of the likely legislation and to identify where
improvements might be accomplished through the deliberations of our own MSPs.
LINKS(Use BACK button to return to this
page).
Office
of the Deputy Prime Minister(High Hedges).
High Hedges Amendment
to Westminster ASBB