The Parish Council in context

From Camlink

To put Parish Councils in context, this page outlines the structure of local government in Cambrideshire.

Cambridgeshire is what is colloquially known as a 'two tier' authority, that is to say its main democratic structure is made up of five District Councils, and a County Council whose boundary comprises all five District Councils. Each layer has its own set of responsibilities. The main responsibilities of the District Councils are planning decisions (known as Development Control), recreational facilities, community development, street cleaning, waste collection, Council Tax collection, and the organising of elections. The main responsibilties of the County Council are education, adult social services, youth services, and transport.

The five District Councils in Cambridgeshire are: Cambridge, East Cambridgeshire, Fenland, Huntingdonshire, and South Cambridgeshire. South Cambridgeshire takes the form of a doughnut completely surrounding the city of Cambridge.

This two-tier structure of a County Council and District Councils is in contrast to the 'unitary' structure which has been adopted by certain local authorities including our neighbouring authority Peterborough. A unitary authority combines in one organisation the responsibilities of a County and District Council.

In the case of both two-tier and unitary authorities, fire, ambulance, police, and health services are dealt with by separate authorities, with Council Tax being collected on their behalf by the District Council or Unitary Authority.

In the case of both two-tier and unitary authorities, there is a network of Civil Parishes which forms the most local form of local governmment. The boundaries of Civil Parishes usually, but not invariably, coincide with the boundaries of ecclesiastical parishes.

Instead of Parish Councils, some of the larger towns of Cambridgeshire have a Town Council. Town Councils have the same powers as Parish Councils, but tend to have larger budgets and operate on a more ambitious scale. In those cases the Town Council is the most local democratic layer; the town is not 'parished' into a fourth layer of Parish Councils. Likewise Cambridge is not parished into Parish Councils; it does however have a set of Area Committees comprised of local City Councillors to which certain functions, including minor development control decisions, have been devolved.

Next page: The role of the Parish Council.