Elections - Community Governance Reviews

A Community Governance Review is a review of the whole or part of the district area to consider one or more of the following:

• Creating, merging, altering or abolishing parishes;
• The naming of parishes and the style of new parishes;
• The electoral arrangements for parishes (the ordinary year of election; council size; the number of councillors to be elected to the council, and parish warding), and
• Grouping parishes under a common parish council or de-grouping parishes.

Who Undertakes the Review?

The Council will approve the terms of reference for a review and deal with all matters in connection with it by delegating to an all party working group which will make final recommendations to full Council following the review for their consideration and making of any necessary Reorganisation Order.

What Is a Parish Council?

A parish council is the local authority closest to the electorate and the community.

The council:

has elected members
raises its money through the Council Tax system
takes decisions on behalf of the people in the parish
provides services for local residents
often owns land and property in the parish
can employ staff (at least a Parish Clerk) and contractors to do work
works with the District Council (North West Leicestershire) and the County Council who provide other services in the community

A parish council is nothing to do with the Church or the Diocese nor is it a voluntary or community sector body.

All meetings are open to the public who can just turn up and listen to the discussions. There are reasonable exceptions to this e.g. when personnel issues are being covered.

What can a Parish Council do?

A parish council has a wide range of things that it can do - powers that have been given to it by various Acts of Parliament over the years.

A parish council will decide which powers it takes up and how much it will cost to undertake them. This cost is mainly funded through an additional charge added to council tax bills called a precept. Parish councils can also work in partnership with other organisations and can seek grants and sponsorships to reduce the level of precept.

Examples of powers and duties that a parish council may decide to do are:

Provide allotments
Power to provide a village hall
Provide bus shelters
Power to look after war memorials
Provide Christmas lights
Power to make bylaws for some purposes
Provide recreational facilities
Power to provide public clocks
Power to repair footpaths and highways
Power to provide and maintain cemeteries and burial grounds
Power to spend on crime prevention measures
Right to be notified of planning applications