Northampton Borough Council media release:

Giving people more of a say in their community

Next week Councillors at the Guildhall will be looking at how the Borough Council can help local people have more of a say in what happens in their area and how they are represented at a community level. 

On Wednesday 18 January Borough Councillors will discuss  the first of two reports that could lead to the creation of new parish councils or changes to the way existing parish councils are run. The Northampton Community Governance Review recommends the Council supports a borough wide review of how people are represented at a community level. 

The Council's Cabinet are being asked to approve the resources needed to  carry out the review which will work with local communities to look at how the views of residents are  currently represented in the parished and unparished areas of the town  and work with communities to put forward proposals for new parish councils where there is local interest in developing them.

The Council's General Purposes Committee, on behalf of the full Council, will be asked to approve the decision to undertake the review at its meeting the following week on Tuesday 24 January. 

The review proposal recommends looking into three main issues:

Changes previously put forward by the Parish poll in Wootton and East Hunsbury  and a petition submitted by Upton Residents Association.

The opportunity to review the current arrangements in other parished areas of the town.

Review unparished areas of the town and ask local people for their ideas on how they would like to be represented at a local level, including the creation of new parish councils

Councillor Brandon Eldred, Northampton Borough Council's cabinet member for community engagement said: "Across our town you can see there are a huge number of people who take pride in where they live and regularly get involved in clean ups and other initiatives to make their community a better place. We want to make it easier for people to get involved. Parish councils are one way of doing this, giving local people a greater say in what happens in their area as well as being able to raise funds to invest back into the community. 

 "If approved, a Community Governance Review would be the start of a process that could see more power given to local more say in the issues that effect their community."        

 The Northampton Community Governance Review will be discussed by Northampton Borough Council's Cabinet on Wednesday 18 January. A copy of the report is available online at www.northampton.gov.uk/meetings as part of the agenda pack for the Cabinet meeting.