Hounslow excluded from ban on shopping bags

4.00.00pm GMT Mon 3rd Dec 2007

Shopping bags could soon be banned across London - but not in Hounslow

Thanks to an error by Hounslow Council, the Bill being put to Parliament by London's 32 local councils to ban disposable shopping bags in the Capital will now not apply to the London Borough of Hounslow.

The Bill, together with two others granting councils across London a range of new powers, was formally deposited in Parliament last week, but it has now emerged that Hounslow Council failed to pass the necessary resolution to enable the proposed law to apply in the borough. If the Bill becomes law, Hounslow will be the only part of Greater London where shops can carry on giving out disposable bags.

The other 32 councils in London all managed to pass the necessary resolution; only Hounslow failed to do so by the required date. Liberal Democrat London Assembly candidate for South West London, which includes Hounslow, Stephen Knight said: "This is an extraordinary cock-up by Hounslow Council. The Conservative Cabinet Member for the Environment Barbara Reid was proudly explaining the new Bill in the local press only a week ago! Every other council in London managed to pass the resolution, so why not Hounslow?"