(Redirected from Civil parishes):''This article is about civil parishes in England; for elsewhere in the world, see
Parish (country subdivision).''
A 'civil parish' (usually just 'parish') in
England is a
subnational entity forming the lowest unit of
local government, lower than
districts or
counties. Civil parishes in their modern form were created in 1894, and although their origins are in the system of
ecclesiastical parishes, they no longer have anything to do with the
Church of England.
Parishes previously existed in
Wales where they have been replaced by
communities. They still formally exist in
Scotland and
Ireland, but are now largely obsolete.
Geography
Civil parishes do not cover the whole of England, and most exist in
rural and smaller urban areas. Civil parishes were abolished in
London in 1965, and in other large urban areas in 1974, by which time their influence was largely nominal in the
urban districts and
boroughs.
Civil parishes vary greatly in size: many cover tiny
hamlets with populations of less than 100, whereas some large parishes cover towns with populations of tens of thousands.
Weston-super-Mare, with a population of 71,758, is the largest civil parish. In many cases, several small
villages are located in a single parish.
Large urban areas are mostly unparished (the government at the time of the
Local Government Act 1972 discouraged their creation for large towns or for suburbs), but there is generally nothing to stop their establishment. For example,
Birmingham has a parish,
New Frankley, whilst
Oxford has four, and
Northampton has seven. In
Greater London, however, the current legislative framework for local government forbids the establishment of civil parishes. This may change, given that in October 2006, the
DCLG white paper ''Strong and prosperous communities'' proposed ending the legislative bar on the creation of civil parishes in London.
The present government encourages the creation of town and parish councils in
unparished areas. The
Local Government and Rating Act 1997 created a procedure which gave local residents the right to demand that a new parish and council be created in unparished areas
[1] (except in
Greater London).
If at least 10% of electors in an area of a proposed new parish sign a
petition demanding its creation, then the local district council or unitary authority must consider the proposal. The final decision rests with the
Department for Communities and Local Government.
Recently established parish councils include
Daventry (2003), and
Folkestone (2004). In 2003 seven new parish councils were set up for
Burton upon Trent, and in 2001 the
Milton Keynes urban area became entirely parished, with ten new parishes being created. In 2003, the village of
Great Coates (
Grimsby) regained parish status. Parishes can also be abolished on request, such as
Birtley, which was abolished on
April 1,
2006.
Parish administration
A parish bulletin board in Willersey in the
Cotswolds.
Civil parishes are usually administered by parish councils, which have various local responsibilities. A parish council can also be called a
town council or occasionally a city council, but most city councils are not parish councils (being instead
metropolitan boroughs or
non-metropolitan districts for example).
If a parish has fewer than 200 electors it is usually deemed too small to have a parish council, and instead it can have a
parish meeting; an example of
direct democracy. Alternatively several small parishes can be grouped together and share a common parish council, or even a common parish meeting. In places where a parish has neither a council nor a meeting, the administration of the Activities normally undertaken by the parish becomes the responsibility of the district or borough council in which the parish is located.
A parish council can become a town council unilaterally, simply by making a resolution to do so. Around 400 parish councils are called town councils. A parish can only gain
city status however if it is granted by
the Crown. In
England, there are currently seven parishes with city status:
Chichester,
Ely,
Hereford,
Lichfield,
Ripon,
Truro and
Wells. The chair of a town council or city council will usually have the title '
Mayor'.
There are about 8,700 parish and town councils in England, and about 1,500 parish meetings
[2]. Since 1997 around 100 new civil parishes have been created, in some cases splitting existing civil parishes, while in others creating new ones from unparished areas.
Powers and functions
Typical activities undertaken by parish or town councils include
[3]:
★ The provision and upkeep of certain local facilities such as
allotments, bus shelters, parks, playgrounds, public seats, public toilets, public clocks,
street lights, village or town halls, and various leisure and recreation facilities.
★ Maintenance of
footpaths,
cemeteries and
village greens
★ Since 1997 parish councils have had new powers to provide community transport (such as a
minibus), crime prevention measures (such as
CCTV) and to contribute money towards
traffic calming schemes.
★ Parish councils are supposed to act as a channel of local opinion to larger local government bodies, and as such have the right to be consulted on any
planning decisions affecting the parish.
★ Giving of
grants to local voluntary organisations, and sponsoring public events, including entering
Britain in Bloom.
The role played by parish councils varies. Smaller parish councils have only limited resources and generally play only a minor role, while some larger parish councils have a role similar to that of a small
district council.
Parish councils receive funding by levying a "precept" on the
council tax paid by the residents of the parish.
Councillors and elections
Parish councils are run by volunteer
councillors who are
elected to serve for four years and it is rare for them to be paid. Different councils have different numbers of councillors.
Most parish councillors are elected to represent the entire parish, though in parishes with larger populations or those that cover large areas, the parish can be divided into wards. These wards then return a certain number of councillors each to the parish council (depending on their population).
Only if there are more candidates standing for election than there are seats on the council will an election be held. It is common in rural parishes for the number of seats available to exceed the number of candidates. When this happens, the vacant seats have to be filled by
co-option by the council.
When a vacancy arises for a seat mid-term, an election is only held if a certain number (usually 10) of parish residents request an election. Otherwise the council will co-opt someone to be the replacement councillor.
Charter Trustees
Sometimes a city or town is abolished as a district, and it is considered desirable to maintain continuity of the charter until a parish council to replace it can be set up. In this case
Charter Trustees perform some of the functions of a parish council, and maintain traditions such as
mayoralty. An example of such a city was
Hereford, whose city council was merged in 1998 to form a unitary
Herefordshire. The area of the city of Hereford remained unparished until 2000 when a parish council was created for the city.
Deserted parishes
The 2001 census recorded several parishes with no inhabitants. These were
Chester Castle (in the middle of
Chester city centre),
Newland with Woodhouse Moor,
Beaumont Chase,
Martinsthorpe,
Meering,
Stanground North (subsequently abolished),
Sturston,
Tottington, and
Tyneham. The last three had been taken over by the
British Armed Forces during
World War II and remain deserted.
Scotland, Wales and Ireland
Civil parishes in '
Scotland' can be dated from 1845, when parochial boards were established to administer the
poor law. While they originally corresponded to the parishes of the
Church of Scotland, the number and boundaries of parishes soon diverged. Where a parish contained a
burgh, a separate ''landward'' parish was formed for the portion outside the town. Until 1891 many parishes lay in more than one
county. In that year, under the terms of the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 the boundaries of the civil parishes and counties were realigned so that each parish was wholly within a single county. In 1894 the parochial boards were replaced by more democratically elected parish councils. These were in turn abolished in 1930, under the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929. Although civil parishes have had no administrative role since that date, they continue to exist. They were used to define some of the local authorities created by the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, and they continue to be used for census purposes. According to the website of the
General Register Office for Scotland[1], there are now 871 civil parishes.
Since 1975, Scotland has had bodies called community councils, but these are not equivalent to and have fewer powers than the
English parishes and
Welsh communities. The area of some of these is defined in terms of civil parishes.
In '
Wales' the equivalent body to a Parish council is termed a
community council. Until 1974 the principality was divided into civil parishes. These were abolished by section 20(6) of the
Local Government Act 1972, and replaced by communities by section 27 of the same Act.
In '
Ireland',
counties are divided into civil parishes. Irish civil parishes are themselves divided into
townlands. Counties are also divided into larger subdivisions called
baronies, which are made up of a number of parishes or parts of parishes. Both civil parishes and baronies are now largely obsolete (except for some purposes such as legal transactions involving land) and are no longer used for local government purposes.
For
poor law purposes
District Electoral Divisions replaced the civil parishes in the mid nineteenth century.
History
The division into parishes is an ancient one, the name is ultimately derived from the
Latin ''parochia'', which were divisions used by the early Christian Church. Parishes arose from
common law and
Church of England divisions, and were originally purely ecclesiastical divisions, but over time, they became used for some purposes of civil administration.
[Winchester, A. (2000). ''Discovering parish boundaries''. Shire Publications. Princes Riseborough, Bucks.:United Kingdom. ISBN 0-7478-0470-2]
Under the
Highways Act 1555, parishes became responsible for upkeep of roads. Every adult inhabitant of the parish was obliged to work four days (and soon after six days) a year on the roads, providing their own tools, carts and horses. The work was overseen by an unpaid local appointee, the Surveyor of Highways. This function was transferred to Highway Boards in 1855 and later to
County Councils. See also
toll roads.
The poor had previously been looked after by the
monasteries until their
dissolution. In 1572, the magistrates were given power to 'survey the poor' and impose taxes for their relief. This system was made more formal by the
Poor Law Act 1601, which made parishes responsible for administering the
Poor Law. They appointed overseers, who could charge a
rate to support the poor of the parish. The 19th century saw an increase in the responsibility of parishes, although the poor law powers were transferred to
Poor Law Unions. These often later became
Rural Districts.
The parishes were run by
vestries, meeting annually to appoint these officials. Most were "open" (where all parisioners could attend) but a few were "select" (elected). These parishes were generally identical to ecclesiastical parishes. However some
townships in large parishes administered the
Poor Law themselves. The latter part of the century saw most of the ancient irregularities in the system cleaned up, with the majority of
exclaves abolished. The
Poor Law Amendment Act 1866 declared all areas that levied a separate rate (that is,
extra-parochial areas and
townships, and chapelries) become civil parishes as well. Also borders were altered to avoid parishes being split between counties. Any place that could claim to be free of any poor rate obligation was referred to as "extra-parochial". Such places were often old church lands, and a few still existed in the 20th century.
Civil parishes in their modern sense were established in 1894, by the
Local Government Act 1894. The Act abolished
vestries, and established elected parish councils in all rural civil parishes with more than 300 electors. These were grouped into
rural districts.
Urban parishes continued to exist, and were generally coterminous with the
urban district or
municipal borough in which they were situated. Large towns originally split between multiple parishes were, for the most part, eventually consolidated into one parish. No parish councils were formed for urban parishes, and their only function was as areas electing guardians to
Poor Law Unions. With the abolition of the poor law system in 1930 the parishes had only a nominal existence.
In Scotland, parish councils were established by the
Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894 and then abolished in 1930. The parishes themselves were formally abolished in 1975, but were replaced with
communities.
In 1965 civil parishes in
London were formally abolished when
Greater London was created, the legislative framework for Greater London did not make provision for any local government body below a
London borough (since all of London was previously part of a metropolitan borough, municipal borough or urban district, no actual parish councils were abolished).
In 1974 the
Local Government Act 1972 retained civil parishes in rural areas and small urban areas, but abolished them in larger urban areas. In
Wales civil parishes were abolished by the 1972 Act, and replaced with
community councils. Many former
urban districts and
municipal boroughs that were being abolished rather than succeeded were continued as new parishes. Urban areas that were considered too large to be single parishes were refused this permission and became
unparished areas.
The Act also led to the possibility of sub-division of all districts (apart from London boroughs, reformed in 1965), into multiple civil parishes. For example,
Oxford, whilst entirely unparished in 1974, now has four civil parishes, covering part of its area.
The future
In October 2006, the
DCLG white paper ''Strong and prosperous communities'' proposed a wide-ranging set of reforms to the future of civil parishes. This includes ending the Secretary of State's power to approve the creation of new parishes and by-laws, ending the legislative bar on the creation of civil parishes in London (mentioned above), the power to enforce by-laws through fixed penalty notices and the ability to style parish councils as 'community', 'neighbourhood' or 'village' councils. The power to approve new parishes will now reside with district or unitary councils, who will also have the right to provide for alternative arrangements in non-parished areas such as neighbourhood committees.
[ Department For Communities And Local Government (2006). ''Strong and Prosperous Communities: The Local Government White Paper (Command Paper)''. The Stationery Office Books. London. ISBN 0101693923. ]
Parishes in other countries
In the
Australian states of
New South Wales,
Queensland,
Victoria and
Tasmania, like
Ireland,
civil parishes still exist but only as largely obsolete (and obscure) geographical references, used almost exclusively in legal documents relating to land titles, see
cadastral divisions of Australia.
Parishes survive as valid administrative units in various other
Commonwealth of Nations countries such as
Grenada (see
Parishes of Grenada).
In
Norway, the Local Government Act 1837 divided the country into municipalities and civil parishes. The civil parishes had a very few functions in the 20th century (mainly church maintenance), and were abolished in 1950. The parishes are still subdivisions of the Norwegian State Church.
References
1. What is a parish or town council - From nalc.gov.uk
2. Office for the Deputy Prime Minister. Local government finance statistics
3. Full list of powers of parish councils - Downloadable Microsoft Word Document
See also
★
List of civil parishes in England
★
List of civil parishes in Scotland
★
Community councils in Wales and Scotland
★
Freguesia - civil parish in
Portugal
★
Communes of France - The French equivalent of civil parishes.
★
Civil township - US equivalent of civil parishes.
★
UK topics
★
Parishes of Grenada
External links
★
The National Association of Local Councils - represents English parish councils and Welsh community councils
★
Consultation document explaining costs and benefits of a parish council for Ramsgate
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
