Function

Powers & Duties

Statutory Provision

Allotments

Powers to provide allotments

Smallholdings & Allotments Act 1908, s.23

Duty to consider providing allotment gardens if demand unsatisfied.

Baths and wash houses

Power to provide public baths and wash houses

Public Health Act 1936, ss.221, 222, 223 and 227

Burial grounds, cemeteries and crematoria

Power to acquire, provide and maintain

Open Spaces Act 1906, ss9 and 10

Power to agree to maintain monuments and memorials

Parish Councils and Burial Authorities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1970, s1.

Power to contribute towards expenses of cemeteries

Local Government Act 1972, s.214

Bus shelters

Power to provide and maintain shelters

Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1952, s.4

Parish Councils Act 1957,3 s.1

Bye laws

Power to provide bye laws for:

Pleasure grounds

Public Health Act 1975, s.164

Cycle parks

Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, s.57(7)

Baths and wash houses

Public Health Act 1936, s.223

Open spaces and burial grounds

Open Spaces Act 1906, s.15

Charities

Duties regarding parochial charities

Charities Act 1993 s.79

Christmas lights

Power to provide to attract visitors

Local Government Act 1972 s.144

Citizens Advice Bureau

Power to support

Local Government Act 1972, s.142

Clocks

Power to provide public clocks

Parish Councils Act 1957, s.2

Closed churchyards

Powers to maintain

Local Government Act 1972, s.215

Commons and common pastures

Powers in relation to enclosure, regulation and management, and provide common pasture

Inclosure Act 1945

Local Government Act 1894, s.8(4)

Smallholdings and Allotments Act 19908, s.34

Conference facilities

Power to provide and encourage the use of facilities

Local Government Act 1972, ss.144

Community centres

Power to provide and equip community buildings

Local Government Act 1972, s.133

Local Government (Miscellasneous Provisions) Act 1976, s.19

Power to provide buildings for use of clubs having athletic, social or educational objectives

Crime Prevention

Powers to spend money on various crime prevention measures

Local Government and Rating Act 1997, s.31

Drainage

Power to deal with ponds and ditches

Public Health Act 1936, s.260

Entertainment and the arts

Provision of entertainment and support of the arts including festivals and celebrations

Local Government Act 1972, s.145

Gifts

Power to accept

Local Government Act 1972, s.139

Highways

Power to repair and maintain public footpaths and bridle-ways

Highways Act 1980, ss.43, 50

Parish Councils Act 1957, s.3

Power to light roads and public places

Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, s.57

Power to provide parking places for vehicles, bicycles and motor-cycles

Highways Act 1980, s.30

Power to enter into agreement as to dedication and widening

Parish Councils Act 1957, s.1

Power to provide roadside seats and shelters

Highways Act 1980, s.130 (6)

Power to complain to district councils regarding protection of rights of way and roadside waste

Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, s.72

Power to provide traffic signs and other notices

Highways Act 1980, s.96

Power to plant trees etc. and to maintain roadside verges

Investments

Power to participate in schemes of collective investment

Trustee 1961, s.11

Land

Power to acquire by agreement, to appropriate, to dispose of land

Local Government Act 1972, ss.124, 126, 127

Power to accept gifts of land

Local Government Act 1972, s.139

Litter

Provision of receptacles

Litter Act 1983, ss.5, 6

Lotteries

Powers to promote

Lotteries and Amusement Act 1976, s.7

Mortuaries and post mortem rooms

Powers to provide mortuaries and post mortem rooms

Public Health Act 1936, s.198

Newsletters

Power to provide information relating to matters affecting local government

Local Government Act 1972, s.142

Nuisances

Power to deal with offensive ditches

Public Health Act 1936, s.260

Public Health Act 1875, s.164

Open spaces

Power to acquire land and maintain

Open Spaces Act 1906, ss.9 and 10

Parish property and documents

Powers to direct as to their custody

Local Government Act 1972, s.226

Postal and telecommunications facilities

Power to pay public telecommunications operators any loss sustained providing post or telegraph office or telecommunication facilities

Post Office Act 1953, s.51 telecommunications Act 1984, s.97

Public buildings and village hall

Power to provide buildings for offices and for public meetings and assemblies

Local Government Act 1972 s.133

Public conveniences

Power to provide

Public Health Act 1936, s.87

Parks, pleasure grounds

Power to acquire land or to provide recreation grounds, public walks, pleasure grounds and open spaces and to manage and control them

Public Health Act 1975, s.164 (Local Government Act 1972, Sched.14 para.27)

Public Health Acts Amendment Act 1890, s.44

Open Spaces Act 1906, ss.9 and 10

Recreation

Power to provide a wide range of recreational facilities

Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, s.19

Provision of boating pools

Public Health Act 1961, s.54

Town and Country Planning

Right to be notified of planning applications

Town and Country Planning Act 1990, Sched.1, para.8

Tourism

Power to contribute to organisations encouraging tourism

Local Government Act 1972, s.144

Traffic calming

Powers to contribute financially to traffic calming schemes

Local Government and Rating Act 1997, s.26

Transport

Powers to spend money on community transport schemes

Local Government and Rating Act 1997, s.26-29

Village signs

Power to use decorative signs to inform visitors

Local Government Act 1972, s.144

War memorials

Power to maintain, repairs, protect and adapt war memorials

War Memorials (Local Authorities' Powers) Act 1923, s.1; as extended by Local Government Act 1948, s.133

Water supply

Power to use well, spring or stream and to provide facilities for obtaining water therefrom

Public Health Act 1936, s.125

THE HISTORY AND FUNCTIONS OF PARISH COUNCILS

Parish Councils have their origins in the development of villages, all over England, during Saxon and Norman times - 1000 or more years ago. Villages were ruled by the Lord of the Manor because as communications were poor and central government often weak, there was little national control. Sometimes the villages all met to make decisions which affected the whole community. Gradually the Parish Priests and sometimes Schoolmasters joined the Lord of the Manor to become a kind of ruling clique because in small villages they were the only people of education

By the Year 1601, Church Vestry Meetings were so organised and workable that it was quite natural for legislators to give them the responsibility of levying the poor rate. These were the first effective local taxes. Everyone in the parish was entitled to attend Church Vestry Meetings but in practice the work fell to a few individuals, rather like Parish Councils today.

Although the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act removed from Parish Vestries the responsibility for poor relief and handed it to Poor Law Unions (the origins of our present District Councils) parishes had naturally accumulated responsibility for administering local charities, managing commons under distribution of land as a consequence of the 18th Century Enclosure Acts.

In 1894 although the Squire, the Parson and sometimes the Schoolmaster were still the leaders in the village, popular education was spreading and more people wanted a say in managing local affairs.

The great Victorian Prime Minister, W.E. Gladstone, piloted the 1894 Local Government Act through the House of Commons. It met a lot of opposition, for example there were over eight hundred amendments moved during its passage through the House. Nevertheless, the Act became law and Parish Councils were formed.

Under the 1894 Act, Parish Councils were to receive their income from rates levied on agricultural land, but this was a time of agricultural depression and the money raised was so very low that soon this system was abandoned. Householders were then rated; something householders had never experienced before, and this lead to more opposition to Parish Councils. It wasn’t until after the first world war that Central Government began to give serious responsibilities to Parish Councils. The earliest among them being the provision of allotments and playing fields. Although an Act relating to allotments had been passed in 1908.

After the second world war the National Association of Parish Councils was formed, and by 1952 half of all parishes in the country were members. The Association became a national force and raised the profile and consequently the activity of parish councils.

Role of Parish Councils

The 1965 Royal Commission on Local Government (The Redcliffe-Maude Commission) recommended that local councils should be empowered to do what they pleased for the benefit of their people, and a consequence of this was the very important 1972 Local Government Act which removed many of the restrictions on the activities of parish councils. For example, before the 1972 Act, parish councils couldn’t save money from one year to the next in order to fund a major project. Something all councils have to do these days to avoid having a massive council tax for each year that anything new is attempted. Subsequent legislation has added to parish council powers and now local councils can undertake any of the following things:-

The provision of allotments.

Developing and improving knowledge of the arts and crafts.

Provision of bars and laundrettes.

Cemeteries, crematoria, maintenance of churchyards and the provision of mortuaries.

Provision and maintenance of public clocks.

Provision of any form of public entertainment and of any premises for giving entertainments; this includes maintaining bands or orchestras and providing for dancing.

The provision of buildings for public meetings and functions, indoor sports, physical recreation, for clubs having recreation, social or athletic objectives.

The provision and maintenance of footway lighting, which lights roads and pavements.

The provision of litter bins and the support of anti-litter campaigns.

The provision and maintenance of public open spaces, pleasure grounds and public walks, public lavatories, car parks, cycle parks, public parks and associated facilities.

Maintenance of public footpaths and bridleways, planting and maintaining road side verges.

Maintenance of public seats, shelters for general public use and particularly for bus passengers, erection of signs which warn of dangers, renounce a place name or indicate a bus stop.

Provision of indoor or outdoor swimming pools or bathing places.

Provision of facilities for conferences, the encouragement of recreation and business tourism.

Powers to maintain a village or town green.

In addition to all those things, a parish council can do anything, provided it is for the general benefit of the community, and that the expenditure in any one year does not exceed £3.50 per local government elector in that particular parish or community. But indeed, most things that the parish council might wish to do or hope to do could be covered by other legislation for which expenditure is unlimited. The only limit being imposed is that of the reluctance of parishioners to pay.

What of the future?

There are serious moves afoot for parishes to undertake work formerly the responsibility of the larger councils.  This will involve parishes in greater financial responsibility but residents should benefit through having a much higher quality of service. Residents should also be able to look for a reduction in the Council Tax Charge by District and County Councils.

History of Parish Councils