Community governance reviews

We can decide to hold a review ourselves, or they can be triggered by people submitting a petition to us.

The review can look at the whole district or just part of it, and can think about any of the following:

• Creating, merging, changing or getting rid of parishes or town councils.
• Naming, style and the electoral arrangements for parishes and town councils; including the year of election, number of council members and the wards.
• Grouping parishes together so they share the administrative burden, or splitting up parishes.
• Other types of community governance, such as area committees.

We must make sure the governance under review reflects the identities and interests of the community in that area, as well as being effective and helpful.

Every review must take into account the size, population and boundaries of that community or parish, as well as the impact any changes might have.

The role of town and parish councils

Town and parish councils are the most local form of government. They collect money from council tax payers - known as a 'precept' - to invest in their area and improve services and facilities.

Examples of the services they might look after include:

• Allotments
• Maintaining parks and open spaces
• Bus shelters and community transport
• Community centres and leisure facilities
• Crime reduction and community safety
• Festivals, events and tourism
• Litter bins, street cleaning and street lights

They can be the voice of the community, and will work with other levels of local government and local organisations to coordinate and look after services and work to improve quality of life in their area.

Have your say on the community governance review

Stage one of the review ran from 7 May to 5 July 2026, where we asked residents, organisations and partners for their views and ideas. You can see the report on the first-round consultation results.

Using what we heard, we have now drawn up proposals and progressed to stage two.

You can visit our consultations page to view these proposals and complete the survey. You must complete it by 9am on Thursday 17 December 2026.

We are also carrying out a separate consultation on a proposal to defer the scheduled parish and town council elections from May 2027 to May 2028.

You can find out more about this consultation, including how to respond and closing dates.