Your Parish Council

Parish Councils are considered the most direct form of democracy in England and Wales, being the closest tier of local government to its parishioners.

 

Grewelthorpe Parish Council was established in 1894 and celebrated its centenary in 1994. We are approximately 3 miles South of Masham and 6 miles North of Ripon and in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

 

This tier of local government has seen an ever-increasing responsibility placed upon it due to an ever-changing bureaucratic landscape. Changes within the law have been felt at the parish level by the introduction of the Localism Act of 2011, and the Audit and Accountability Act of 2014. A number of other legislations either recently passed or currently being laid before parliament have resulted in greater responsibilities for Parish Councils 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 residents who either live or work in the village and whose primary function is to

ensure that the Parish is efficiently and economically run using a proportion of the annual Council Tax income.

 

The Parish Council has a broad range of responsibilities some of which can be summarized below:

• • • Provision of Playgrounds and Play Equipment
    • Statutory consultations on planning issues, working to influence Planning Authority decisions, based on Councillor's local knowledge
    • Making representations to other local and national bodies, on issues that affect the local community
    • Managing a number of public open spaces
    • Working with the County Council on traffic matters
    • 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.

 

To find us Our postal district is HG4 3. If you use a satnav HG4 3BS will get you to the Village Green. The Lat, Long coordinates of the Village Green and Pond are 54.180069, -1.646446.

 

Current Parish Councillors

Cllr Carl Harrison (Chair)
Cllr Alan Hodges (Vice-Chair)
Cllr Sarah Dawson
Christine Stelling
Edward Threapleton