CRC | Blog | How much power should parish and town councils have in the 21st century?

How much power should parish and town councils have in the 21st century?

Posted by Crispin Moor at 12:02pm on Thursday, 18th June 2009

I have been asked to make the case for extending the powers of parish and town councils at a ‘Policy Slam’ session at the summer seminar being managed by the University of Gloucestershire and the Society of Local Council Clerks on 15 July.

Details of the summer seminar can be found at: http://www.slcc.co.uk/content/summer-seminars/38/

I’m sympathetic to the case, but I also know the case against. These include concerns over:

narrowness of decision making
the big costs involved (high overheads)
the quality of those involved at the parish level
the lack of representativeness of councillors

Any views – and evidence – supporting the case for (or indeed against) gratefully received. Either by commenting on this page or else by sending me a note to: crispin.moor@ruralcommunities.gov.uk

I’ll post up a note on how it goes after the event.

Thanks!

Crispin