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Parish and town councils are a statutory local authority set up
under the Local Government Act 1972. In Somerset, there are
three tiers of local government: county council, district councils
and town/parish councils.
Town and parish councils are an essential to local democracy and
have an important role in shaping the communities they
represent by:
- giving views, on behalf of the community, on planning
applications and other proposals
- undertaking projects and schemes to benefit local
residents
- working in partnership with other bodies to benefit
residents
- alerting relevant authorities to problems that arise
- and helping the other tiers of local government keep in touch
with their local communities.
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Town and parish councils have a wide range of powers which
essentially relate to local matters, such as looking after
community buildings, open space, allotments, play areas, street
lighting, bus shelters, car parks and much more.
They also have the power to raise money through taxation, known
as the 'precept'. The precept is the parish council's share
of the council tax. The precept
demand goes to the billing authority, the district council, which
collects the tax for the parish council.
The Government introduced the Quality Parish and Town Council
Scheme in 2003 with the aim of encouraging councils, on behalf of
their communities, to have a greater say in the running and
improvement of local services.
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