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Hertfordshire County Council’s Relationship with Town and Parish Councils

Background Briefing

Jan Hayes-Griffin

Assistant Director – Strategy & Communications

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Town and Parish Councils

• First tier of local government

• Services that parish and town councils deliver include:– looking after community buildings, recreation

grounds and parks– allotments – swimming baths

• Don’t receive funding from government – main source of funding is through council tax precept

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Town and Parish Councils

• Around 8,500 parish councils in England – 35% of the country’s population currently lives in a parished area.

• Vary greatly in size

• 688 town and parish councils hold ‘quality parish status’

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Localism Act 2011

• General Power of Competence

• Neighbourhood Planning

• Community Rights to Challenge and Bid

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HCC’s relationship with T&PCs

• Engagement with individual councils varies across the county depending on local need, appetite and capacity.

• Primary relationship is through local county councillor

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Areas of joint working

•Local highways matters•Services for young people•Countryside management•Rights of Way•Land management

Consultation on service changes and planning issues

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How would you describe your relationship with your County Council?

Very Good

Good

Neutral

Poor

Very Poor

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Examples of why relationships work well

• Officers keeping in close contact and responding to requests quickly

• Regular meetings with Highways

• Approachable, helpful County Councillor

• County Councillors using locality budget for initiatives in town / parish council

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Examples of why relationships do not work so well

“There sometimes remains a patronising attitude to parishes. The Parish Charter is only given lip service.”

“County Council officers have little

knowledge/ understanding of Parish Councils.”

“They do not feel they have to enter into discussions with

Towns and Parishes on issues that greatly affect our

Town and its residents.”

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How would you describe your relationship with your local County Councillor?

Very Good

Good

Neutral

Bad

Very Bad

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Reasons why relationships are felt to be good

County councillor is :

•Accessible and responsive

•Will go out of their way to sort out problems

•Supportive of local projects

•Attends local meetings and is aware of local issues.

Areas of close working include street lighting, the locality budget scheme, anti social behaviour, roads and salt bins.

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How can County and Parish/Town Councillors work best together for their communities?

• Better consultation, engagement and joint working on local issues

• A service agreement that spells out what each party wants and can give to the relationship.

• On the Parish plan

• Parishes should have key contact at County level.

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HCC’s Vision of Localism

‘ To shift power from the state (in the form of the County Council and its local partners) to individuals and families, both personally and also in geographic localities in which they live. It seeks to position councillors as an indispensable resource within active communities. It aims to ensure that residents are suitably informed to allow them to influence and shape local services and take a more active part in helping them help themselves.'

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HCC’s Vision of Localism

• Focus is not on re-distributing power within different tiers of local government ….

• …rather enabling elected members across the tiers of local governance to bring their different contacts and spheres of influence to bear to broker solutions to local issues and needs.

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T&PCs’ view of their role in localism

• Offering local services

• Inputting into decisions made about Parish

• Opportunity to serve the community more effectively

• To be the voice of the village

• To enable local communities to be central to the decisions that affect their community

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T&PCs would like greater influence over …

• Libraries

• Highways

• Public transport

• Planning

• Housing

• Education

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T&PCs’ views on localism

• 45% of T&PCs working towards meeting the requirements of the use the GPC or Quality Council status, 24% already meet these requirements.

• 56% indicated they were interested in neighbourhood planning , 31% were already working towards a neighbourhood plan.

• Some interest in managing further public assets including nature reserves, civic buildings, flower beds, playing fields

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Possible areas of future HCC/ T&PC joint working

• Development of neighbourhood/ parish plans?

• Enhancement of council services?

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Questions?