Parish councils are elected by the local community and can precept in order to run local services. These councils are the first tier of local government. They can be large, like ours – we have 13 councillors and serve a parish of approximately 15,000 people – or very small, serving a few hundred.
We have powers as a council. None of us can act alone and all decisions are taken in public meetings. As individual councillors we can help parishioners but are at all times bound by a code of conduct
As councillors we are also members of the community we serve. We understand our area and work to preserve and enhance it.
We meet in our Parish Hall most Mondays all the year round. Meetings can last up to two and a half hours (usually less!) and you will find information about all our committees on this website.
We are a link both to the City Council and County Council. Councillors comment on planning applications and can represent residents at the City Council meetings (such as planning and licensing) and at Neighbourhood Action Panel (NAP) meetings on neighbourhood policing issues.
We are responsible for street furniture such as bus shelters, litter bins and dog bins, and some seats around the village and the cemetery, where many benches are in memory of loved ones. We give grants to help the many and various village organisations and present two awards – the Centenary Award for services to people in the village and the Burgess Award for services in a wider context.
We maintain our recreation ground, which has a thriving community centre at its heart. The community centre building is ours but is leased to the Community Association and run by an excellent management team.
Noakes Place, adjacent to the recreation ground, is under the control of the City Council at present while we renegotiate a maintenance contract. Information on all the services we run can be found on this website.
