The Wickwar Parish Council Mission Statement
To help create a socially inclusive and caring community which embraces all residents regardless of age, gender, race or religion and seek to promote mutual co-operation.
To ensure the Parish Council communicates well with the residents, understands their needs and contributes to and leads in uniting the Parish.
To provide a representational voice for the Parish in order to give residents the opportunity to influence their future by working with other parishes, agencies and appropriate partners.
To manage the Parish Council’s assets and finances effectively and efficiently to achieve best value.
To apply for grant monies where appropriate in furtherance of Parish Council responsibilities.
Maintain and improve amenities to a high standard in order to meet the needs of the community.
Preserve the heritage and rural environment of the Parish and enhance where appropriate.
Parish and Town Councils are the same; they have the same powers and act within the same legislation. A Town Council is a Parish Council that has decided to have a mayor and call itself a Town Council. Parish and Town councils are the tier of local government closest to the people.
Parish Councils represent the concerns and aspirations of a genuine local community. They are not a voluntary organisation, a charity nor (a common mistake) anything to do with the Church.
Parish Councils often do not have a permanent office or any full-time staff and will meet in the local hall or school. The part-time nature should not however be taken as any indication of the effectiveness and efficiency of the council, as many parish councils work very hard for their electors and can run a wide range of services very effectively. A larger Parish or Town Council however can cover quite large populations and will often provide a wide range of services from leisure facilities, supporting museums, Tourist Information Centres, town centre closed-circuit television systems, as well as maintaining closed Church of England churchyards, halls and allotments similar to smaller Parish Councils.
Parish Councils are the most non bureaucratic and the cheapest kind of local authority in existence although they are strictly audited each year.
WHAT CAN THEY DO?
As Parish Councils were created in law, they can only act within the law by exercising their powers and functions which have been conferred on them by Statutes (i.e. Acts of Parliament). Anything a parish council tries to do outside these powers is ultra vires, in other words, outside the law.
Section 11 of the Local Government and Rating Act 1997 also acknowledged that some communities not yet represented by this tier of local government (Parish or Town Council) might choose and could petition to demand its own elected Parish or Town Council. An indicator of how important local representation can be to people.
The range of powers available to Parish Councils continue to change and proposals announced in the Local Government White Paper 2006 set out the government’s plans to reinvigorate local politics by giving more power to councils and communities. Legislation enacting the changes will be published at a later date, but the message is clear, services are to be improved by
bringing them closer and making them more responsive to local communities. Already local council responsibilities are many and varied, including (not a comprehensive list) the purchase of land and buildings, providing and maintaining village greens, the provision of recreational facilities, crime prevention measures and traffic calming. In future these responsibilities will be far greater.
Parish and Town Councils have many powers if they choose to use them, it is how and which of these powers that councillors decide to use, that makes a vibrant forward thinking Parish Council and can bring positive benefits to communities. The basic responsibilities of Parish and Town Councils are to make the lives of their local communities more comfortable by representing the whole electorate within the parish, delivering or co-ordinating services to meet local needs and striving to improve quality of life in the parish. Parish and Town Councils can also comment on planning applications and be represented at public enquiries.
Parish Councils range in size from a large Town Council representing 70,000 people to the smaller parish that may only have 200 people. Town and Parish Councils do not receive Council Tax directly from the public, but are primarily funded at present from a small percentage of the Council Tax charge made by District/Unitary authorities to local householders. Their annual budgets can be anything from £1000 to sums in excess of £5,000,000, with some even raising further income from services they provide. Parish and Town Council budgets are a tiny part of the whole Council Tax and Parish and Town Councils do not receive any Government funding or business rates. The way that local government is financed is under great scrutiny and a major review is likely to result in proposals that will fundamentally change the way that local councils manage their services to the community and the way they fund them.
Whatever the make up of your council, it embodies the representation of people’s hopes and concerns for ensuring that local services are provided efficiently and effectively for the benefit of community wellbeing. A well informed council is aware of what its community needs and strives to provide this through team work and accessing grant funding, representation at other meetings or lobbying appropriate bodies.
Town and Parish Councils have a duty to appoint or employ a Clerk to record and carry out the council’s decisions. Depending on their size and the services provided, they may employ staff for the benefit of the community. All councils must meet at least four times a year (although most meet more often) and their meetings must be open to the public, although for certain restricted items of confidentiality they may occasionally exclude the public.
A Parish or Town Council is the collective voice of its community.