WHAT IS A PARISH COUNCIL

WHAT IS THE PC?

Meetings and access

Poulshot Parish Council meets usually on the first Tuesday of each alternative month at 7.30pm in The Village Hall, Poulshot Road, Poulshot, SN10 1RT. The Annual Parish Meeting, for all electors, is held every May in the same place.

The venue is accessible on flat ground. Public seating and copies of the meeting papers are provided on this website. If you would like to attend and have any needs not mentioned here, please contact us and we will do all that we reasonably can to facilitate your visit. If you would like to record, film, or transmit from within the meeting, including using social media please let us know so that we can make appropriate arrangements.

Every meeting is held in public, with all public notices posted on the Public Notice Boards. Agendas can be found on this website.

To find out about meetings of the Devizes Community Area Board, click here.

What is a parish?

There are two sorts of parishes whose boundaries do not always coincide:

the Ecclesiastical Parishes centred on an Anglican church with a parochial church council and,
the Civil Parishes, which are part of local administration, having a parish (or town) council.

What is a civil parish?

A civil parish is an independent local democratic unit for villages, smaller towns, and suburbs of urban areas. Each parish has a Parish (or Town) Meeting consisting of all its local government electors and most (where the electorate exceeds 200) have a Parish or Town Council. Over 13 million people live in such parishes.

What is the Parish Council?

The council is a small local authority. Its councillors are elected for four years at a time in the same way as for other councils. By-elections may be held to fill vacancies occurring between elections. The council is the corporation of its village or town. Each year the councillors must choose a chairperson from amongst their number.

What powers have Parish Councils to do things for their areas?

Parish councils have a number of formal powers. Many provide allotments, and look after playing fields, village greens and other types of leisure activities such as swimming pools. They have a hand in maintaining or guarding rights of way, bus shelters, public seats and smaller scale street lighting. Councils are often concerned with the provision of halls and meeting places.

What else do they do?

A variety of things. Some larger councils help social care schemes, or a local bus service. They make village surveys that inform planning authorities. Many provide car or cycle parks. Others provide public conveniences, litter bins and seats, and can prosecute litter bugs. Many appoint charitable trustees and school managers. Very often the cemetery or a closed burial ground, and perhaps the war memorial are managed by the Parish Council. Often, Parish Councils help implement and co-ordinate crime prevention measures, as well as traffic calming initiatives. They have the power to improve the quality of community life by spending sums of money on things which, in their opinion, are in the interests of the parish or its inhabitants, and many kinds of activities are aided in this way.

How much do they cost?

Parish Councils are the most unbureaucratic and the cheapest kind of local authority in existence. Their funds are a tiny part of the council tax and they get no general government grant - so they have every incentive to keep expenditures low and be economical.

What else is important?

Parish Councils have lately become more important because a unitary authority can seem more remote. The parish councillors know the villages and can (and increasingly often do) represent their views to other authorities like the Unitary Council, Health Authorities, Police and Fire Authorities. They are entitled to be consulted on planning applications, which include work to listed buildings and in conservation areas, and are often consulted on such things as schools and roads. They put the parish’s case at public inquiries. Recent moves from Government to greater 'localism' are set to increase the role of Parish Councils even further.

Who controls the Parish Council?

You elect its members every four years - you last did this in May 2021 - and you are encouraged to go to the annual parish meeting and to say what you think. You can also go to every meeting of the Parish Council and meet the Council members and listen to their business; see Parish Public Notices for when these are. The accounts are strictly audited every year.

How does one find out more?

You can contact the Clerk to Poulshot Parish Council here or visit the Wiltshire Association of Local Councils or the National Association of Local Councils.