Tour De Yorkshire) Order 2016 (Draft
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House of Commons Regulatory Reform Committee Harrogate Stray Act 1985 (Tour de Yorkshire) Order 2016 (Draft) First Report of Session 2016–17 Report, together with formal minutes relating to the report Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 12 December 2016 HC 876 Published on 15 December 2016 by authority of the House of Commons Regulatory Reform Committee The Regulatory Reform Committee (previously the Deregulation and Regulatory Reform Committee) is appointed to consider and report to the House on draft Legislative Reform Orders under the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006. Its full remit is set out in S.O. No. 141, which was approved on 4 July 2007. Current membership Andrew Bridgen MP (Conservative, North West Leicestershire) (Chair) Richard Fuller MP (Conservative, Bedford) Rebecca Harris MP (Conservative, Castle Point) Simon Hoare MP (Conservative, North Dorset) Dr Rupa Huq MP (Labour, Ealing Central and Acton) Imran Hussain MP (Labour, Bradford East) Rob Marris MP (Labour, Wolverhampton South West) Wendy Morton MP (Conservative, Aldridge-Brownhills) Roger Mullin MP (Scottish National Party, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath) Andrew Percy MP (Conservative, Brigg and Goole) Christopher Pincher MP (Conservative, Tamworth) Jeremy Quinn MP (Conservative, Horsham) Mr Andrew Smith MP (Labour, Oxford East) Criteria against which the Committee considers each draft legislative reform order Paragraph (3) of Standing Order No.141 requires us to consider any draft legislative reform order against the following criteria: … whether the draft legislative reform order — (a) appears to make an inappropriate use of delegated legislation; (b) serves the purpose of removing or reducing a burden, or the overall burdens, resulting directly or indirectly for any person from any legislation (in respect of a draft Order under section 1 of the Act); (c) serves the purpose of securing that regulatory functions are exercised so as to comply with the regulatory principles, as set out in section 2(3) of the Act (in respect of a draft Order under section 2 of the Act); (d) secures a policy objective which could not be satisfactorily secured by non-legislative means; (e) has an effect which is proportionate to the policy objective; (f) strikes a fair balance between the public interest and the interests of any person adversely affected by it; (g) does not remove any necessary protection; (h) does not prevent any person from continuing to exercise any right or freedom which that person might reasonably expect to continue to exercise; (i) is not of constitutional significance; (j) makes the law more accessible or more easily understood (in the case of provisions restating enactments); (k) has been the subject of, and takes appropriate account of, adequate consultation; (l) gives rise to an issue under such criteria for consideration of statutory instruments laid down in paragraph (1) of Standing Order No. 151 (Statutory Instruments (Joint Committee)) as are relevant; (m) appears to be incompatible with any obligation resulting from membership of the European Union. Publication Committee reports are published on the Committee’s website at www.parliament.uk/regrefcom and in print by Order of the House. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Chris Shaw (Committee Clerk) and Jonathan Olivier-Wright (Senior Committee Assistant). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Regulatory Reform Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 5777; the Committee’s email address is [email protected]. Harrogate Stray Act 1985 (Tour de Yorkshire) Order 2016 (Draft) 1 Contents 1 Introduction 3 2 Description of the draft Order 4 3 Assessment of the draft Order 6 4 Conclusion 9 Formal Minutes 10 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 11 Harrogate Stray Act 1985 (Tour de Yorkshire) Order 2016 (Draft) 3 1 Introduction 1. The Harrogate Stray Act 1985 (Tour de Yorkshire) Order 2016 and Explanatory Document were laid before Parliament on 8 November 2016 by the Department for Communities and Local Government, in accordance with section 7(2) of the Localism Act 2011 (the Act). In 2014, the first Localism Order laid was the Draft Harrogate Stray Act 1985 (Tour de France) Order 2014, which related to the Yorkshire Tour de France Grand Départ 2014. The Stray is 80 hectares of open parkland, owned by the Duchy of Lancaster, set aside for recreation. At that time, owing to the size of the area of the Stray to be used to accommodate a stage of the race and the number of days required for the event, the Council applied for a temporary disapplication of parts of the 1985 Act. Our predecessor Committee considered the Order and concluded that a satisfactory case had been made for an Order and recommended that it proceed using the negative resolution procedure. 2. The Secretary of State has recommended that this new Order be subject to the negative resolution procedure. We have examined the draft Order in accordance with Standing Order No. 142(2) to (4) and agree with the Secretary of State’s recommendation. 3. We contacted the local Member, Andrew Jones, to find out whether he had any concerns over this Order being made. He has confirmed that he supports it and welcomes the value that the Tour de Yorkshire brings to the region. 4 Harrogate Stray Act 1985 (Tour de Yorkshire) Order 2016 (Draft) 2 Description of the draft Order 4. The purpose of the draft Order is to remove temporarily some restrictions on the use of specified parts of an area of land within Harrogate known as the Stray, for the sole purpose of preparing for and hosting part of the Tour de Yorkshire. The Tour de Yorkshire is a multiple stage cycle race developed as a regular legacy race, following the successful hosting of the Tour de France in Yorkshire in July 2014. Harrogate Borough Council (the “Council”) manages the Stray on behalf of the landowner, the Duchy of Lancaster. The 1985 Act is a private Act which regulates the use and management of the Stray. Several provisions in the Act would prevent or restrict the hosting of the Tour de Yorkshire.1 The Council has asked the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to use his powers under section 5 of the 2011 Act to make an Order temporarily to disapply or amend the relevant parts of the 1985 Act. 5. The Council anticipates that they will need to section off approximately 14.6 hectares of the 80 hectares Stray for a maximum of 11 days so that it can be occupied by temporary infrastructure to support the Tour. The 1985 Act places various obligations and restrictions on the Council which would prevent it from doing this. These are: a) Section 4(2), requires the Council to maintain and preserve the aspect of the Stray; b) Section 4(3), requires the Council to protect trees, shrubs, plants, turf and herbages growing on the Stray; c) Section 4(4), imposes a requirement that where the Council encloses part of the Stray, it must, in exchange, provide a substitute public area at least the same size within 100 metres of the Stray; d) Section 5, gives Harrogate residents free access to, and privilege of enjoying recreation on, the Stray; e) Section 6(1)(d), imposes limits on the number of aircraft landings; f) Section 6(4) restricts the amount of land which can be enclosed, and the duration for which it can be enclosed; g) Byelaw 3, made under section 7 of the Act, prohibits the removal of soil or plants; and h) Byelaw 17, also made under section 7 of the Act, prohibits the use of radios and public address systems causing annoyance. 6. The draft Order disapplies sections 4(2), 4(3), 4(4), 5 and 6(4) of the 1985 Act, and byelaws 3 and 17 made under section 7 of the 1985 Act, from 23 April to 3 May 2017, for the sole purpose of hosting a stage of the Tour de Yorkshire. The draft Order also temporarily amends section 6(1)(d) of the 1985 Act so that the limits on the number of aircraft landings allowed from 23 April to 3 May 2017 may be exceeded for the sole purpose of hosting the Tour de Yorkshire. 1 Section 6(3) of the 1985 Act permits the Council to enclose part of the Stray for events, but section 6(4) limits the amount of land enclosed to 3.5 hectare and the duration to a total of five weeks in any one year. Harrogate Stray Act 1985 (Tour de Yorkshire) Order 2016 (Draft) 5 7. The draft Order would apply to England only. 8. The Department states that the proposed provisions are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights and with legal obligations arising from membership of the European Union.2 2 Explanatory Note, para 5.7 6 Harrogate Stray Act 1985 (Tour de Yorkshire) Order 2016 (Draft) 3 Assessment of the draft Order 9. Our role is to assess whether the proposals meet the statutory conditions required of an Order under the 2011 Act, and to examine the proposals against a number of tests. Standing Order No.142 sets out the criteria under which the Committee makes that assessment. In this section we assess the draft Order against those criteria. A: APPEARS TO MAKE AN INAPPROPRIATE USE OF DELEGATED LEGISLATION 10. The draft Order does not appear to make an inappropriate use of delegated legislation and therefore does not raise any issues in respect of this test. B: HAS AN EFFECT WHICH IS PROPORTIONATE TO THE POLICY OBJECTIVE INTENDED TO BE SECURED 11.