Have your say on Cheltenham's local councils through the Community Governance Review 2025
You may have seen in the news recently that the government has set out plans for a major reform of local and regional governance, with the aim of giving more power to local areas and simplifying how local government works. You can find out more about this in the English Devolution White Paper. In light of these plans, Cheltenham Borough Council is keen to make sure we keep and improve community engagement and cohesion, local democracy and the delivery of effective local services. To help with this, we’re carrying out a Community Governance Review (CGR).
This review looks at how your community is represented by town or parish councils. It's about making sure the structure and boundaries of councils work for you. Your feedback will help us shape recommendations for possible changes.
What are we consulting on?
During this consultation, we're asking you to consider the following:
- Whether existing parish council boundaries reflect local communities. Should any parishes be merged, altered, or abolished?*
- Whether new local councils (town and parish) should be created
- Whether the number of councillors in each area is right
*we are not specifically looking to abolish any parishes, but all feedback will be considered
Stage 1: Gathering your views (19 May - 18 July 2025)
- We are asking for your initial feedback on what works well and what could be improved
- You can suggest changes to parish councils, such as boundary changes, mergers, or governance improvements or you can suggest that new parish or town councils are set up
- This consultation should take around 10 - 15 minutes to complete
Stage 1 of the consultation will be going live on Monday 19 May. From that date you'll be able to access the online feedback form here.
Results and outcomes
What will happen to the results and what changes can be made to local councils?