Our vision
Mission
Our mission is simple. We want to bring power to the people of Meir so that we have more control and say over our community. We want to do this by forming; Meir Town Council
Knowing what a town council is and does
A town council (local council) is the first tier of local government and are statutory (formal) bodies. They serve the public and are made up of independently elected councillors that must be resident within the boundary (+3m) of the council. All councillors voluntarily serve the public and receive no wage or salary.
There are 10,000 local councils covering 30% of England and 100,000 councillors who serve in these local councils, with over £1b being invested into these communities every year.
Town councils work towards improving community well-being and providing better services for the public. Their activities fall into three main categories:
Representing the local community
Delivering services to meet local needs
Striving to improve quality of life and community well-being.
How town councils work
In most parts of England there are 3 tiers of local government, these are:
County Council: This type of council is usually responsible for education, transport, fire and public safety, social care and recycling facilities.
Borough or District Council: This type usually take responsibility for the collection of Council Tax, planning applications, waste collection and housing.
Parish or Town Council: These types of councils are the most local level of council and the one we are proposing to form. Areas of responsibility these councils cover are; allotments, burial grounds, bus shelters, car parks, open spaces, community transport schemes, community safety and crime reduction measures, events and festivals, footpaths, leisure and sports facilities, litter bins, public toilets, planning, street cleaning and lighting, tourism activities, traffic calming measures, village greens and youth projects.
Parish and town councils are being given more and more powers to care for their communities. Some of the best parish of town councils in the country have adopted something called a ‘neighbourhood plan’. This type of plan is basically a strategy for how the council would like to manage the area in the short, medium and long terms. This is based on your input! If a council has a neighbourhood plan it gives them many, many more powers.