Community Governance Review

As a district council we are responsible for reviewing parish arrangements and implementing any appropriate changes to benefit the decision making and community management in the local area. Currently we undertake a community governance review every four years.

Reviews can consider:

altering the existing boundary of a parish
creating, merging or abolishing parishes
changing the name of existing parishes
the electoral arrangements for parishes (e.g. how many parish councillors are required and parish warding)
grouping parishes under a common parish council, or de-grouping parishes.
the “style” of a parish (enabling an area to be known as a town, community, neighbourhood or village rather than a parish).

What’s happened so far:

In November 2021 we contacted all parish councils across the Vale of White Horse asking them to submit requests for matters to be considered as part of a Community Governance Review.

We then collated and presented the responses to the Community Governance and Electoral Issues Committee on 7 March 2022. The committee agreed to consider all requests submitted and formally adopted the Terms of Reference.

In April 2022 we then asked people to comment on the proposals. We then reviewed the feedback and reported back to the Committee who reviewed the responses at their meeting on 26 May 2022.

Between 30 June and until midday 29 July 2022 we’ve undertaken a consultation on the revised draft proposals. This consultation has now closed.

The Committee reviewed responses of the consultation at their meeting on 19 October 2022, and agreed a follow up meeting would need to be arranged to make a decision on any outstanding review requests.

What happens next?

The Community Governance and Electoral Issues Committee agreed any final changes at their meeting on Tuesday 6 December 2022. Any changes will apply from the May 2023 elections.