Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will assess the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to permit a parish or community council to be established covering an area that is continuous over two primary local authority areas.

The ability to create, amend or abolish parish and community councils was devolved to local government by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. Central Government therefore has no remit for involvement in such an issue.

However, as a local matter, the parties concerned should contact the Local Government Boundary Commission for England, which has powers to recommend boundary changes between principal local authorities, and consequential changes to parish arrangements to the Secretary of State. A review of this kind is known as a Principal Area Boundary Review (PABR).

The Commission’s current policy is that it would only agree to carry out a PABR if there was support from all authorities involved in the potential boundary change, that the proposal represented value for money for local taxpayers and there is evidence of public support for the proposition.