LOCAL GOVERNMENT FUNCTIONS . SIR,—Having given a little time to the
study of the three White Papers dealing with the functions, areas and status, and the finance of local government, I am impressed by the fact that in none of these is any reference made to the relation of the press to the authorities concerned.
Optimistically I assume that the omission of any reference indicates that the Local Authorities (Admission of the Press to) Meetings Act, 1908, will remain in operation. Whether the survey of local government contained in the three documents will lead to the legislation of 1908 being brought up to date is another matter. Past government interest in the matter makes it clear that optimism is not enough. How much the Act is out of date can be seen in the fact that since 1931 every effort to secure the needed reform has been frustrated. Not since Mr. Chuter Ede's Bill of 1931, failed of its objective has any government been able to find time to intro- duce its own Measure, or for the Private Members' Bills which have been before the House.
Prior to 1931 and since, however, successive governments have found time to create a number of bodies exercising public functions, to which the press have no right of admission. The list is too long to include here; some are joint bodies representa- tive of authorities to whose meetings the 1908 Act applies, but the efforts which have been made to bring them all within the scope of existing legisla- tion is evidence of their existence and their func- tions. Subject to the chances of the Private Mem- bers' Ballot the effort will no doubt be renewed in due course, and my purpose in this brief statement of the facts of the matter is to suggest that the press itself, together with local ratepayers' and other associations, might take the opportunity, when the Government White Papers come under considera- tion by local authorities and the Ministry of Hous- ing and Local Government, in the near future, to bring to the notice of all Members of Parliament the need to bring the existing legislation up to date, and to ensure that one of the functions of local authori- ties is to give to the communities they serve the maximum of information.--Yours faithfully, 3 Burnt Ash Lane, Bromley H. GREGORY PEARCE
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