Public Services – How your Councils work

Town & Parish Councils (General Information)

Parish and Town Councils are the most local tier of local government and have a wide range of powers to provide services which may include:   

• Allotments – powers to provide allotments and a duty to provide allotment gardens if demand is unsatisfied and if reasonable to do so
• Public Baths – power to provide public swimming baths
• Burial grounds, cemeteries and crematoria – power to acquire and maintain, power to provide and power to contribute towards expenses of cemeteries
• Bus Shelters – power to provide and maintain shelters
• Byelaws – power to make byelaws for places of public recreation: Cycle parks, public swimming baths, open spaces and burial grounds, mortuaries and post-mortem rooms
• Charities – duties in respect of parochial charities, Power to act as charity trustees
• Clocks – power to provide public clocks
• Closed Church Yards – power to maintain
• Commons and common Pastures –  powers in relation to inclosure, regulation, management and provision of common pasture
• Conference Facilities – power to provide and encourage use of facilities
• Community Centres – power to provide and equip buildings for use of clubs having athletic, social or educational objectives, power to acquire, provide and furnish community buildings for public meetings and assemblies
• Crime Prevention – power to spend money on crime detection and prevention measures
• Ditches and Ponds – power to drain and maintain ponds and ditches to prevent harm to public health
• Entertainment and the Arts – provision of entertainment and support of the arts
• Environment – power to issue fixed penalty notices for litter, graffiti and offences underdog control orders
• General Power of Competence – power of an eligible council to do anything subject to statutory prohibitions, restrictions and limitations which include those in place before or after the introduction the general power of competence
• Gifts – power to accept
• Highways – power to repair and maintain public footpaths and bridleways, power to light roads and public places, power to provide parking places for vehicles, bicycles and motor cycles, power to enter into agreement as to dedication and widening, power to provide roadside seats and shelters, power to consent to a local highway authority stopping maintenance of a highway or stopping up/diverting a highway, power to complain to district council about the protection of rights of way and roadside waste, power to provide certain traffic signs and other notices, power to plant trees and shrubs and to maintain roadside verges
• Play areas and Play Equipment
• Grants to help Local Organisations
• Honorary Titles – power to admit to be honorary freemen/freewomen of the council’s area persons of distinction and persons who have in the opinion of the authority, rendered eminent services to that place or area.
• Investment – power to participate in schemes of collective investment
• Land – power to acquire by agreement, to appropriate, to dispose of
• Litter – provision of bins
• Lotteries – power to promote
• Markets – power to establish or acquire by agreement markets within the councils’ area and provide a market place and market building
• Mortuaries and Post Mortem rooms – power to provide mortuaries and post-mortem rooms
• Neighbourhood Planning – power to act as lead body for a neighbourhood development plan or a neighbourhood development order
• Newsletters – power to provide information relation to matters affecting local government
• Open Spaces – power to acquire and maintain land for public recreation, power to acquire and maintain land for open spaces
• Parish Property and Documents – power to receive and retain, duty to deposit certain published works in specific deposit libraries
• Public Buildings and Village Halls – power to acquire and provide buildings for public meetings and assemblies
• Public Conveniences – power to provide
• Recreation – power to provide a wide range of recreational facilities, provision of boating pools
• Right to challenge services provided by a public authority – the right to submit an interest in running a service provided by a district, county or unitary authority
• Right to nominate and bid for assets of community value – the right to nominate assets to be added to a list of assets of community value and the right to bid to buy a listed asset when it comes up for sale
• Town & County Planning – right to be notified of planning applications if right has been requested
• Tourism – power to encourage tourism to the council’s area
• Traffic Calming – power to contribute financially to traffic calming schemes
• Transport – powers to spend money on community transport schemes
• War Memorials – power to maintain, repair, protect and adapt war memorials
• Water – power to utilise wells, springs or streams for obtaining water
• Websites – power for councils to have their own websites