PARWICH.ORG

Thank you to Chris Elton for pointing out a press release on the Communities and Local Government website. Hazel Blears, Communities Secretary, speaking to the National Association of Local Councils in Eastbourne on 21st May praised Parish Councils, saying:

We are seeing a new era of modern ‘parish power’. It’s high time we got away from stereotypes that parishes are sleepy, out of touch operations. Parishes are about local democracy in action and I’m proud to be strengthening their arm.

As the smallest unit of local democracy, their small size belies the big impact they can have. The truth is new parishes can revive democracy, and modernise communities by putting more power into local people’s hands. That’s why we are boosting the power of parishes, devolving more power from central and local governments to local people.

Our forthcoming Empowerment White Paper will herald a significant shift of power, giving people a real say over the local issues that matter to them – schools, hospitals, police and housing. We need to learn from the best, and many parish councils are past masters at giving local people a voice.

This ‘Empowerment’ White Paper, with proposals designed to reinvigorate local democracy and devolve power to the grass roots, is due within weeks, and this will be complemented by separate powers for parish councils including;

• Plans to make it easier to bring in local experts onto parish councils to help drive key priorities and shape services that matter. Parishes will be able to temporarily appoint local experts as additional councillors to advise on issues within their field of expertise, such as teachers on schools or businessmen on finance.
• A new ‘wellbeing’ power for eligible local parish councils. This would shift more power locally, so eligible parish councils can freely make decisions as long as they are in their community’s interest and promote the wellbeing of its area. This might be for example, local town centre development, support for a community rail service, or new initiatives to create jobs. The wellbeing power is currently only applicable to Local Authorities.

For a thousand years the Parish has been an important unit in local government (from the Manor Court to the Vestry to the Parish Council). Over the last hundred years or so its powers have been radically diminished, but now is the time for our Parish Councils to reassert themselves. It is also the time for us to support our Parish Councils in making the most of these new opportunities.

We are seeing an increased awareness of the importance of our local Parish Councils, certainly attendance at the Parwich Parish Council Annual Open Meeting has increased in recent years. There is a general feeling that they should have more input with the local authorities, for example with the Peak District National Park Authority on such as planning decisions. Now there are Parish Council Representatives appointed by the Secretary of State to the Peak Park Board this may improve. Christopher Carr of Tissington is our local Board Member. Our District Councillor, Simon Spencer, in his interview on this site, spoke highly of Parwich Parish Council and stressed the need for strong parish councils in general.

Parwich Parish Council in turn is discussing at their June meeting, next week, how they can utilise our website PARWICH.ORG to communicate with local residents, and we hope soon to contact Eaton & Alsop Parish Council and the Councils covering Ballidon and Pikehall to strengthen our links with them. As Chris Elton pointed out at yesterday’s Planning Hearing, our strong community with its groups and organisations represents significant ‘Social Capital’ which the various local Authorities (Peak Park, District Council and County Council) as well as Government bodies such as the Planning Inspectorate are increasingly obliged to take into account.

Perhaps more succinctly what I am saying is that the Government rhetoric is Power to the People, so let us take them at their word and start exercising that power.

The formal new powers will be limited to those parish councils which achieve ‘Quality parish’ status – a formal approval of the competence of the Parish Council. Do let us know if any of our local parish councils have this status yet.

For more information on the forthcoming Empowerment White Paper see http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/712771