Welcome to our Parish Council
Parish, Town and Community Councils are the most direct form of democracy in England and Wales, being the closest tier of local government.
This tier of local government has had a variety of responsibilities placed upon it due to changes within the law relating to the Localism Act of 2011, the Local Government Act 1972 and a number of other legislation and regulations. This has resulted in a busier Council and, from a resident’s perspective, a more local place to access information and raise concerns.
The Council is an elected body with five seats filled by Dishforth residents whose primary function is to ensure that the Parish is efficiently and economically run using a proportion of the annual Council Tax income which is called the Precept. The Parish Council makes decisions collectively face-to face.
The Parish Council has a broad range of duties (Which is an activity that must be carried out such as the appointment of the Chairman and the Parish Clerk) and Statutory Powers (Granted by Parliament which gives Parish Councils the choice or opportunity to take action and are therefore discretionary) and some of which can be summarised below:
- Provision of Sports Recreational and Leisure Facilities
- Provision of Playgrounds and Play Equipment
- Provision of and maintenance of Street Lighting/Street Cleaning/Litter Bins/Bus Shelters
- Maintaining Bridleways/Footpaths
- Maintaining and providing of Burial Grounds/Village Greens/Village Commons
- Statutory consultations on planning issues, working to influence Planning Authority decisions, based on Parish Councillors local knowledge
- Making representations to other local and national bodies, on issues that affect the local community
- Engaging with other local Parish Councils on matters that affect us all.
Whilst there are limited powers to make decisions, Parish Councils do have the ability to negotiate with, and the power to influence, those other organisations that do make the final decisions.
Thank you for reading.
