Arlesey Community Governance Review consultation Stage 2

What is a Community Governance Review?

A community governance review enables a local authority such as Central Bedfordshire Council to review and put in place or make changes to community governance systems and structures, including:

  • changing the boundaries of existing parishes
  • creating new parishes
  • merging parishes
  • grouping parishes to work together
  • changing the name of a parish council
  • changing how many councillors the parish has
  • sub-dividing parishes into smaller parish wards
  • changing existing parish ward boundaries

In this instance, we asked you specifically for your views on a proposal by Arlesey Town Council to change the number of parish councillors from 12 to 7, which is an effective working number for a council. Fewer than 7 councillors can be difficult for decision-making if a councillor cannot attend a meeting. More detail is provided on this in the background notes below.

It is a chance to have your say on how your local community is represented as part of the democratic process.

This community governance review was requested by Arlesey Town Council after it had difficulty attracting enough candidates to stand for election at the 2019 parish elections.