I am not sure how this is justified but I am determined to get past this excuse "We leave it to local authorities to judge what is best in their local area".

Well this is true with legislation delegated to them - but only to the extent that what any LA judges to be best MUST follow in the words of the legislation, follow the spirit of it and not be ignored and made-up locally by individual council employees to suit them.

The recourse is the courts - but before that can be an option - councils have to first provide the answers to the questions asked. We largely had those answers under the old legislation but as this was coming to an end - there was little point in going to the courts at that point.

The situation is different when very little of the new legislation has been tested in the courts. It does mean that liberal positions like The City of London's on the incidental exemption can stand until any ruling is made elsewhere and that councils who hold less liberal posisions will most likely find that they will be the ones defending their positions in court.

But all councils must be pushed out of their comfort zones and forced to answer the basic questions and if they then find the legislation a problem to enforce - they can join in the lobby to change it.