What Is A Parish Council?
A Parish Council is the first tier of local government and are statutory bodies. They serve electorates, are independently elected. Upper Heyford Parish Council is one of 10,000 parish and town councils in England. Parish Council activities fall into three categories: delivering services to meet local needs, giving the community a voice and representation, and improving the quality of life and community wellbeing.
What Does It Do?
Parish councils and councillors make a massive difference to local people’s quality of life. They are passionate about their communities and seek to make a change to help improve their residents’ lives.
Upper Heyford Parish Council runs numerous services including:
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Delivering services such as cemeteries, celebrations and festivals, community centres, litter and dog bins, football pitch, playgrounds and open spaces
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Improving the quality of life developing neighbourhood plans, funding community projects and services, tackling loneliness and youth projects
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Giving the community a voice on planning matters with principal authorities and developers, local police, health services and the government.
What Is The Role of a Parish Councillor?
Councillors are elected to represent the local community, so you must live or work in the parish council area. Becoming a councillor is a rewarding experience as you can make a change in your community to help improve residents’ lives. A councillor’s role can include developing strategies and plans for the area, organising events, helping with problems and ideas, representing the community, working with other local community groups, making decisions, and talking to the community about their needs and what the council is doing.
A councillor’s role has three main areas:
Decision-making
Councillors decide which activities to support, where money should be spent, what services should be delivered, and what policies should be implemented by attending meetings and committees.
Monitoring
Councillors ensure that their decisions lead to efficient and effective services by monitoring how well things work.
Getting involved locally
As local representatives, councillors have responsibilities towards their constituents and local organisations. These responsibilities often depend on what a given councillor wants to achieve and how much time is available.
