Council and democracy

History of Parish and Town Councils

Origins of Parish Councils

Their origins date back to the Tudor period. With the decline or ending of the feudal institutions and the dissolution of the monasteries, England needed new institutions to look after the local poor and keep the local roads in good condition.

The Church, with its system of parishes, was the only nationwide organisation with literate persons of authority. It had a parochial organisation; all people had to be member of their local church and regularly attend; and the Church levied tithes, (a tenth of the produce of land and stock, usually in-kind.) Usually, the whole body of parishioners met to vote money for church purposes or elect at least one of the two churchwardens.

Meeting in the only covered building capable of holding everyone, the Church, the Vestry meetings became an ideal means of looking after local matters. Parish Vestries were not established by Act of Parliament, their powers were not strictly defined in law and there was no rule about who could attend the meetings, yet they were an ideal organisation to deliver local services.

Parliament gave them duties to look after the poor in 1536, register baptisms, marriages and burials in 1538 and made them responsible for their maintaining the highways within its boundaries in 1555. In 1601 parishes were formally allowed to levy a rate (property tax) to fund this.

Parish officers

Parliament legislated that the Parish had to elect certain officers, such as constable, overseers of the poor and the surveyor of highways. These posts were unpaid yet carried considerable duties and the people elected were compelled to serve.

These duties were unpopular but exemption could be obtained by purchasing a 'Tyburn Ticket' which was a certificate issued to anyone who successfully prosecuted a felon for a capital offence - this gave exemption from all parish and ward offices. These tickets were treated like property and changed hands for up to £40 a piece.

To ensure that parishes discharged their duties, they were overseen by Justices of the Peace meeting in quarter sessions. They could order parishes and parish officers to carry out their duties and acted as an appeal court against decisions made by the parish or its officers.

The decline of parishes

The small size of parishes and the reluctance of people to serve office meant the actions of the parishes were very variable. This and the growth of towns meant that parishes were unfit to carry out tasks such as maintaining highways or looking after the poor. Therefore Parliament created new bodies to carry out the tasks, such as Turnpike Trusts, the Poor Law Commissioners (1834) and sanitary authorities (in 1848). The Poor Law were based not on single parishes but on collections or unions of parishes, governed by Guardians, weakening the role of parishes.

The Public Health Acts of 1872 and 1875 mapped the country in urban and rural sanitary districts. The rural bodies were governed by the Guardians. The sanitary districts were transformed into Urban or Rural District Councils in 1894.

Modern parishes

In their modern form, the civil parishes date from the 1894 Local Government Act; they were created to reinvigorate local communities and give them a local voice. This separated the functions of local government, the civil Parish Council, from those of the Church, whose functions were covered by Parochial Church Councils.

These civil parishes were only established in rural areas only.

Parish Councils have seen extra functions added but remain largely unchanged - they have escaped many of the changes imposed by central government on other layers of local government since then.

New parishes

New parish or town councils can be created by the Government whether or not the neighbourhood ever was a civil parish.

The first parishes to be created in recent years are Letchworth in 2004 and South Mimms in 2008. Once they have been created the councillors can then decide whether to adopt the title of parish or town council.

Origins of Town Councils

Compared to the many years of history of parish councils, town councils only formerly date from 1974, created as 'successor bodies' to the former Municipal Boroughs and Urban District Councils dissolved in the re-organisation of local government that came into effect that year. Yet towns themselves would often have various rights and powers granted many centuries earlier. The most common would be the right to hold a market charter: this could be granted to the town directly or to the local Lord of the Manor.

Town councils are much less numerous than parish councils and they can have been formed from one of several ways:

• They might have been created to look after an area previously covered by a former Municipal Borough council e.g. Hertford Town Council took over from the old Hertford Borough Council. Borough councils were often very old and they were the only form of elective local government until the late Victorian period
• They might have been created to look after an area previously covered by an Urban District Council e.g. Ware Town Council took over from Ware Urban District Council. Urban District Councils were only created by the 1894 Local Government Act, based on the urban sanitary districts of the 1870s but the towns themselves were almost always much older, some dating back to roman times.
• A town council can previously have been a parish council that decided to become a town council. Any parish can resolve that its area shall have the status of a town - this turns the council into a Town Council and the Chairman into the Town Mayor. Hatfield was originally a parish council but as it grew it decided to become a town council.

Despite their name, the powers of a town council are the same as a parish council.