Cllr Toby Savage is the Leader of South Gloucestershire Council.
Levelling Up has been the mantra by which the Government has sought to reduce geographical inequalities across the country, with great strides having been made already despite the impact of the pandemic, including the recent announcement of the new Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill in the Queen’s Speech. But it is not their task alone and by helping our communities to become parished through the creation of a town or parish council, local communities can gain the tools to control their own futures.
As the economic powerhouse of the West of England region, South Gloucestershire Council represents a wide variety of communities, from the most rural of villages and hamlets to more urban and market towns, each with their own unique features and their own challenges – including the disparity between our parished and unparished areas.
One of the key benefits to having a town or parish council is to empower local leaders with the ability to govern and make accountable community-based decisions at a hyper-local level. It allows for greater attention and care for the issues that are potentially resource intensive for a district council to justifiably manage. Importantly, it gives the community more representation and a stronger voice. While critics will argue against Town and Parish Councils, citing the perceived lack of power by comparison to higher levels of local governance; that is precisely their point. While District, County, and Unitaries manage the bigger issues, this leaves the more localised bodies with the opportunity to concentrate on the smaller but meaningful issues on their doorstep – whether it is supporting In Bloom initiatives, managing community halls and parks, or supporting youth services.
Research by Onward and the findings of their Social Fabric Index shows that local authorities with full town and parish coverage score significantly higher than local authorities without any hyperlocal councils for key measures of community strength with, on average, more than five times as many community assets as fully unparished areas. According to the index there is also a 38 per cent higher rate of volunteering and group membership as well as 34% higher rates of charitable giving.
This is not to say that these unparished communities are without such community spirit, but with a Town or Parish Council standing as a hyperlocal beacon of civic pride, this energy has the real potential to be better coordinated and channelled to really deliver on local priorities and to spot problems and provide solutions more effectively. Then there are also the financial benefits; with generic Special Expenses charged by the Local Authority to maintain the area replaced by the more transparent Parish Precept that gives residents more opportunity to ensure public money is spent on genuine local priorities.
Earlier this year, South Gloucestershire Council took the decision to create a new Town and Parish Council respectively for the communities of Kingswood and Staple Hill, two of the most relatively deprived areas in the district and the only two remaining unparished areas – a hangover from previous local government reorganisation. This followed public consultation which saw a swell of support for the potential benefits this could have, compared to when the move was last considered around a decade ago.
This comes as part of our wider local levelling up efforts to build strong and cohesive communities from a grassroots level through a place-shaping approach, in which Town and Parish Councils will have a significant role to play. A case in point being the amplified local voice that the creation of Kingswood Town Council will provide in the major regeneration of the town centre led by South Gloucestershire Council – which will see the restoration of key cultural and heritage buildings in the town, the pedestrianisation of the High Street, investment in parks and green spaces, and improvements to main shopping centre recently purchased by the Council.
As this phase of regeneration progresses, there will be an expectation from the community to lead this – and it is important that they are given the tools to have a positive impact. This is why having a Town Council is so vitally important to the area and why we have been such ardent supporters of closing the inequality gap that the unparished areas have with their parished neighbours.
With a Conservative-minded goal to give communities the tools to allow them to help themselves to level up, Town and Parish Councils provide the strong and accountable leadership to help build strong and cohesive communities, enabling them to work together to address problems important to them. Whilst national and local government can do some of the heavy lifting, it is by giving communities every available tool at a grassroots level, that we will see them have the greatest benefit.