Would the Community Boards replace Town and Parish Councils?

No. Town and Parish Councils are statutory bodies in their own right and will remain in place, retaining all their existing powers and responsibilities.

The Boundary Committee’s draft proposal includes an opportunity for Town and Parish Councils to play a substantially stronger role in running local public services and helping to decide local priorities.

How could Town and Parish Council play a stronger role?

The Boundary Committee’s proposal envisages a neighbourhood empowerment scheme that would create 28 Community Boards based around the 28 market towns of Devon, together with a City Board for Exeter with broader responsibilities.

Community Boards could include town mayor, Town and Parish Councillors, Unitary Councillors and representatives from key public service partners.

Town and Parish Councillors could in this way have even greater involvement in the delivery of improved local services in their communities.

Would Town and Parish Councils be able to take on new responsibilities for some Unitary Council services and would Town and Parish Councils have to refer everything through the Community Board?

There are potentially great opportunities for Town and Parish Councils to have responsibility for some local services to be delegated to them by the Unitary Council providing that this is what they want and they meet agreed standards.

The success of the Parish Paths Partnership and the Parish Lengthsmen scheme, demonstrate what can be achieved.  

Delegation of local services is more likely to be achieved if the new Unitary Council provides funding to develop the capacity of Town and Parish Councils.

To develop the role of Town and Parish Councils, Devon County Council want to work with Town and Parish Councils to identify opportunities for delegated services and co-design pilot schemes to assess their potential.

Town and Parish Councils could make bids for such services directly to the unitary council – as happens now with the County Council.

The local Community Board would certainly be kept informed and consulted about any proposed plans for delegated services and in terms of local accountability it may be helpful if the Community Board were to act as the Unitary Council’s local scrutiny committee on the performance of such services.

Will there be any financial cost to Parish Councils if they have delegated responsibilities as part of the local Community Board arrangements?

We are still in the very early stages of the process, but it is clear from the Boundary Committee's proposal that Parish Councils would have the choice to take on delegated responsibilities - there would be no compulsion to do so. Any services delegated to Parish Councils will come with funding. Devon County Council is currently talking to Parish Councils across the county to develop the concept of the unitary council's Community Boards and the inter-relationship with Town and Parish Councils. Part of that is to develop a menu of sorts of the kind of services which could be devolved to Town and Parish Councils.