Parish council can tap into civic pride
WHAT does Rossendale need? How about more councils? No seriously, it’s not the bank holiday sun having a peculiar impact on the mind - let’s see where this goes!
One of the things which has always struck this columnist as odd is the lack of parish or town councils here in Rossendale.
Few boroughs have so many clearly distinct - some might even say rival - towns and communities, and it’s no surprise that it doesn’t take long when talking about local politics to hear people complain that Bacup gets overlooked in favour of Rawtenstall, that Haslingden has been forgotten, or that communities like Edenfield are just treated as a place to build more houses.
If this was a borough situated in the south of England, it’s a fair bet there would be at least four town or parish councils - one for Bacup, one for Rawtenstall, one for Haslingden, maybe one for Helmshore and Edenfield, or another for Crawshawbooth, and maybe one for Waterfoot too.
As it stands, Whitworth is the only area in Rossendale with a town council. It has a budget, according to its agenda papers - which are remarkably scant on detail - of around £67,000, raised through a precept in council tax which sits on
top of the money paid to Rossendale Council, the fire authority, the police authority and Lancashire County Council.
On a typical Band D property, that means around an extra £20 a year going to the most local of local councils. And there’s nothing stopping other areas pushing for town or parish councils - Darwen fought hard for years for one, and has one now.
You just need to collect signatures from 7.5% of local people to push the local council to formally review the need for a parish council in your area.
If you look through the minutes of the meetings of Whitworth Town Council, you soon learn the town employs a caretaker to keep the place looking spick and span, and also works hard to make sure the town’s views are represented on pretty much every planning application put forward to Rossendale Council in its area.
This year it has ensured the police and the council have been held to account over plans to install CCTV in the area, and provides an easy place for any member of the public to pop along, raise a concern, and see it get taken up. The silting up of a local lodge? The town council got on to Rossendale Council - and got an answer.
It actively works to promote the area too - its leisure and tourism committee had agenda items about the family fun day in July, and of course, is a driving force behind the annual Rushcart event too (which takes place this weekend).
Top of the council’s website at the moment is advice on flyposting (or rather, advice on how to flypost in a way which doesn’t upset people). And, although this could be a product of minutes of meetings which are just a few sentences long, party politics doesn’t seem to be a dominant force.
Indeed, its website listings for the 12 town councillors doesn’t even mention political parties in their descriptions. Above all, the town council shouts up for Whitworth. As does the town council in Clitheroe, the town council in Darwen and the parish councils, or indeed the dozens of other town and parish councils across Lancashire.
Rossendale appears to be a very civic-minded area, just look at the number of wonderful community events taking place across the area every year. Surely giving each community its own town or parish council would be an obvious way of making the most of that civic-mindedness, and helping people take control of their local areas? Each and every borough councillor has it in their gift to make it happen - they just need to collect the signatures.