Community governance review 2025

Local council (parish council and town council)

Local councils are the first tier of governance and are the first point of contact for anyone concerned with a community issue. They are democratically elected local authorities and exist in England, Wales and Scotland. For the purposes of this consultation we use the term 'local council' to mean a parish council, town council or community council. 

Local councils are made up of locally elected councillors. By law, they must hold at least one meeting a year. The funding for parish councils is allocated by the district council and is taken from the area’s council tax; this is called an annual precept. Parish or town councils can run certain services within their area, however this may not be the same for every parish or town council and would depend on whether that service is being run by a county or district council. 

What is the difference between a town and parish council?

Parish and town councils are the smallest tier of governance in England, operating below ‘principal authorities’ (district councils - like Cheltenham Borough Council - unitary county councils and London borough councils). They manage local amenities such as village halls, footpaths, parks and cemeteries, and larger town councils may run larger facilities such as leisure centres. The only difference between a parish and town council is that a town council can appoint a mayor if it wishes whereas a parish council conducts its business through a chairman.

Existing parishes

Please visit our parish information page to see a map of all existing parishes.

New parishes

A ‘new parish’ is defined in the legislation as:

• Establishing an unparished area as a parish
• Combining one or more unparished areas with one or more existing parished areas
• Combining parts of existing parishes
• Combining two or more existing parishes
• Separating parts of a parish or parishes

If a new parish is set up, the review must make recommendations about:

• The name of the new parish
• Whether or not the new parish should have a parish council
•  The electoral arrangements for that council
• Whether or not the new parish should have an alternative style. The alternative styles that may be applied to new parishes, in addition to parish or town are:
  • Community
  • Neighbourhood
  • Village

Ward

A ward is a local authority area used for electoral purposes, created to give citizens more direct representation. One or more council members are elected to represent each ward. This community governance review is not asking about changes to wards.

Two-tier system

Many areas of the country have a two-tier system of local government, made up of county councils and district councils which split responsibility for council services. County councils, like Gloucestershire County Council, cover a wide area, and run services such as education, waste disposal and social services. A number of district councils, like Cheltenham Borough Council, then operate in the county council areas, and operate services including building regulation, burials/cremations, community safety, administration of council tax and business rates, environmental health, electoral administration, licensing, sports facilities, housing, street cleaning, waste collection and looking after our parks and gardens.

Local Government Reorganisation (LGR)

This is the ongoing process of restructuring the way local authorities are set up. Some of the benefits of LGR include improved service delivery, long-term financial sustainability and better value for money. Recent approaches have focused on creating unitary models, reducing duplication, and enabling stronger regional leadership. The government’s spending review seeks to balance funding constraints with election commitments. This will likely mean a further period of extreme financial challenge for local government. The December 2024 White Paper (see next paragraph) outlines significant governance reforms, including the creation of new strategic authorities, reorganisation of county and district councils into unitary authorities, expanded mayoral powers, integrated funding settlements and a clearer devolution framework.

The English Devolution white paper

The English Devolution White Paper (published on 16 December 2024) set out the government’s vision for simpler local government structures. Simpler structures can lead to better outcomes for residents, improved local accountability and savings which can then be reinvested in public services.

Devolution

Devolution refers to the transfer of powers from a central government to subnational authorities, such as regional or local governments.

Community governance review

District councils, unitary county councils and London borough councils (‘principal councils’) have had responsibility for carrying out community governance reviews and have been able to decide whether to approve recommendations made in those reviews. In making that decision, they will need to take into account the views of local people. A community governance review offers an opportunity to put in place strong, clearly defined parish boundaries. Reviews also give principal councils the chance to consider the future of any parishes that may be failing or have become redundant, often because there aren’t enough local electors in the area who are willing to serve on a parish council.

A community governance review is a review of the whole or part of the borough area to consider one or more of the following:

• Creating, merging, altering or abolishing parishes
• The naming of parishes and the style of new parishes
• The electoral arrangements for parishes (the ordinary year of election; council size)
• The number of councillors to be elected to the council, and any division of parishes
• Grouping parishes under a common parish council or de-grouping parishes

The recommendations made in a Community Governance Review have two main objectives:

• To improve community engagement and better local democracy
• More effective and convenient delivery of local services

The review must ensure that community governance in the area under review reflects the identities and interests of the community in that area and is effective and convenient. It must also take into account any existing arrangements such as community or residents’ associations or neighbourhood councils.

There are two stages to the review: the first stage will gather opinions on current structure and any new proposals; the second stage will be Cheltenham Borough Council’s recommendations on the way forward which the public will be able to comment on.

Ultimately, the recommendations made in a community governance review should bring about improved community engagement, better local democracy and result in more effective and convenient delivery of local services.

Size of the council

‘Council size’ is the term used to describe the number of councillors to be elected to the whole council. The Local Government Act 1972 says each parish council must have at least five councillors, while there is no maximum number. There are no rules about how those councillors should be allocated between parish wards but each parish ward, and each parish grouped under a common parish council, must have at least one parish councillor. The National Association of Local Councils published guidelines suggesting that the minimum number of councillors for any parish council should be seven with a maximum of 25. The council size should be considered on its own merits, taking into account its population, geography and the pattern of communities. Consideration should be given to the difficulty of attracting sufficient candidates to stand for election. In some parishes, this has led to repeated uncontested elections (where the number of nominated candidates is less than or equal to the number of seats to be filled) and/or a need to co-opt members in order to fill vacancies. If someone is co-opted into a group, they are asked by that group to become a member, rather than joining or being elected in the normal way. A parish council’s budget and planned, or actual, level of service provision may also be important factors in reaching conclusions on council size.