The background is this…
There are 119 parishes in South Norfolk. In 2015 only 19 held parish council elections, and many of those didn’t have elections in 2011, or 2007 either – Bergh Apton is one of those parishes.
It’s not good for local democracy if those that govern us are not subject to election. Not only are many of our smallest parishes not elected, the proportion of the tax they raise that they spend on their own administration has got out of control. In a small parish like Bergh Apton about 2/3 of the tax it raises is spent on the Clerk, Insurance – leaving just one third to be spent on the village. If it was a charity it would be closed down, and Bergh Apton is not alone.
Now is the time to consider whether Bergh Apton and villages like it would be better served by joining together their Parish Councils. There’s no question of removing the road signs and the village boundary would still exist. It’s just that several parishes would club together to have a single Parish Council serving all of them. Alpington and Yelverton have had a joint parish council for years. Perhaps it’s time that Bergh Apton joined-up with neighbours too…
Ideally to get to about 1000 people instead of 300. We need arrangements that are going to hold good for the NEXT 20 years that address the realisation that it’s difficult to get people to serve and to solve the problem of smaller parishes spending over half of their income on running costs.
South Norfolk is encouraging Parishes to think deeply about their future and want the initiative for any changed arrangement to come from them, a bottom up, not a top down process. Our consultation opens on 20 March and you can have your say by visiting
Due to the snap general election the consultation period has been extended for the South Norfolk Community Governance review. The deadline has now been moved back to July 12. The links to submit representations are below.
The first survey is for residents which will be put on our website
http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/communitygovernancereview1/
If you have any queries please feel free to contact the team.
Kind regards,