Our Response to the Consultation

We know that residents struggle to understand why there are three different Councils providing services to our community – a parish, borough and county council.  Tollerton residents know that we are their local council, the connection is clear in the name, but despite all the efforts of recent years there remains a clear lack of clarity as to who does what and the distribution of services provided by the two upper tier authorities.

More fundamentally residents do not understand why we need two separate upper tier councils and the logic of the distribution of services between them – why does one council collect the bins off the street, whilst another fixes the potholes on the street but then the first one sprays the weeds growing in the pot holes? 

As a Parish Council we regularly have to direct residents to the correct local authority – often after they have already made their own attempts and spoken to the wrong council or councillor. It costs residents and tax payers time and money.  At its worst, during the flooding of 2019 one resident having rung a Council for help whilst her home was flooding was merely informed that she had called the wrong local authority.  There must be a better, simpler way to support our residents and therefore we support proposals for a single upper tier of local government in Nottinghamshire. 

Devolution

Any unitary authority needs to work closely with its local communities, bringing powers and services closer to the residents it serves.  We have seen that a council operating across the whole county can still be local – with our residents benefitting from highway maintenance and safety improvements tailored to meet local needs and concerns.  Conversely we have seen that a Borough Council can also be distant from its local communities, not recognising the issues that have greatest importance locally or in extreme cases forgetting those communities entirely. 

Therefore the size of the unitary authority seems less important than the way it is set up and we would support a single council across the whole county committed to engaging with and empowering local councils and communities.  As a proactive rural local council we welcome the opportunity to provide more properly funded localised services for our community.  We would expect any unitary council to provide

  • a clear framework of opportunities for devolution. This should set out the services that local councils can seek to commission or provide, the mechanisms for doing so and a transparent and fair approach to devolving funding
  • a dedicated communities and localism service working with town and parish councils to engage local councils and communities with the unitary council, building relationships and supporting the devolution of services
  • a mutually agreed schedule of engagement with town and parish councils setting out how, when and on what the unitary council will provide notice and consult.  We would expect this to include all planning matters requiring approval within the parish boundaries, not just applications and to also include those planning matters within neighbouring parishes being close to the boundary or with potential to have adverse impact on the community.
  • a right for town and parish councils to participate and represent their local communities in those committees or bodies taking decisions that have greatest local impact including:
    • planning matters requiring approval within the parish boundaries and those within neighbouring parishes served by a Parish Meeting
    • local growth boards and local economic plans

We would like to see these recognised as the minimum arrangements for devolution for any unitary authority through the forthcoming devolution white paper and have copied these comments to our local MP.  We would also like to see the white paper

  • update the rights, powers and duties of parish councils to provide competence for devolved matters and a stronger role in their local communities
  • further strengthen and advance community rights such as those to buy community assets set out in The Localism Act
  • provide additional clarity and simplification of the arrangements for parish councils to provide joint committees and jointly commission and contract local services.

In the interests of transparency these comments will be published to our residents

Tollerton Parish Council