Government support for creating new parish councils

The measures announced on 9th September 2013 by Don Forster, Communities Minister, Dept of Communities and Local Government, will enable more people to run local services and take decisions that affect their area.

Although there are almost 10,000 parish councils in England, only a handful are to be found in urban areas. 

So, while almost all of the country is covered by parishes geographically, only around a third of the population is represented by one.

Town and parish councils can directly run local facilities such as leisure centres and theatres, manage parks, establish bylaws, run job clubs, fund community groups and use the community rights and help stop the clock on the sale of important local assets such as pubs and green space.

The announcement will make it easier to create a parish council by:

• cutting by a quarter the number of petition signatures needed to start the new parish creation process - from 10% of the local population to 7.5%
• reducing the time local authorities can take to decide on parish council applications to a maximum of a year
• making it easier for community groups that have created a neighbourhood plan to kick-start the process - removing the need for them to produce a petition
• the Department for Communities and Local Government will also be supporting the National Association of Local Councils (NALC)     and County Associations of Local Councils to help campaigns for new town and parish councils and provide them with resources

More information on the DCLG website