‘Create A Council’ Campaign in London

October 26, 2011

Charity and Environment

When you mention Parish and Town Councils I imagine that most people immediately think of rural idylls, cricket matches on the village green, and perhaps the likes of vicar Geraldine battling with landowner David over a plate of Mrs Cropley’s weird sandwiches… In reality, Parish Councils and Town Councils have an important role in delivering services to over 9,000 communities in England, supported by nearly 80,000 elected councilors.

Why am I mentioning this on the blog? Well, last night I went along to an open event organized by the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) as part of their ‘Create A Council‘ campaign. This informal get-together was held at the new (and rather impressive) Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre in Southwark, and gave various groups from across the capital the opportunity to set out what they are doing to establish new Town and Parish Councils within the existing London boroughs. As a bit of background, while the power of local people to establish new Town and Parish Councils was reintroduced in England in 1997(and 200 new bodies were formed followed this change in legislation) London was excluded from this process until 2007.


NALC_18
Photograph by Paul Clarke

Representatives were there from the Paddington Development Trust, who support a campaign to establish a Town Council for Queen’s Park, and there was also a rather impassioned speech from Leroy Simpson from the Harlesden Town Team, who want to establish local representation for residents of Harlesden in Brent so that they can have a stronger voice in discussions around improvements to local facilities – they’re already campaigning for changes to the area around Willesden Junction Station for example. Councillor David Drew was also on hand to recount his experiences as leader of one of the newly established bodies, Andover Town Council in Hampshire.

If you’re interested in finding out more about plans to strengthen local democracy in you area of London, or indeed are considering starting a campaign yourself, you can find out more on the NALC website. There’s also an opportunity to meet with representatives at another networking evening being held later in November – more details on that here. You can also keep up-to-date with news on this subject by following @CreateACouncil on Twitter.

About The Londoneer

Pete Stean is a keen blogger, amateur photographer, singer and ham radio enthusiast in his spare time... Google+

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