Potential changes to parish boundaries across Cornwall are under review once more after decisions following an earlier consultation had to be deferred due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The original Community Governance Review took place during 2019 and 2020, looking at local government arrangements across Cornwall, and seeing where changes could be made to reflect changing communities.
The review was placed on hold when the pandemic began, meaning the Council could not complete its decision making for all proposals. Those left outstanding are now going out for public consultation once more due to the time period that has elapsed since the original review.
A full list of the outstanding decisions to be made can be found at our Lets Talk Cornwall website.
Parish and Town Councils are the first tier of local government. They play a vital role in providing local services and involving people in their local community.
A Community Governance Review can make a number of changes to parish governance when there is clear evidence this would be an improvement:
- It can make changes to parish areas including changes to boundaries between parishes, mergers of parishes or creating a new parish out of part of one or more existing parishes
- It can make changes to the number of parish councillors or introduce or change parish warding arrangements
- It can accommodate changing the name of a parish
- It can accommodate the grouping together of parishes under a common parish council.
Cornwall Council has to ensure that community governance arrangements are:
- Reflective of the identities and interests of the community in that area; and:
- Effective and convenient (this relates to the ability of parishes to provide services for its residents).
Public consultation on the deferred community governance review proposals will go live week commencing 24 January 2022 and will last for eight weeks. The feedback will then be considered by the Constitution and Governance Committee, chaired by Cllr Barry Jordan.
If any of the deferred proposals will affect you or your community, please do take the time to participate in the public consultation and provide the Council with your views.
You do not need to re-submit any views that you have already provided to us during the original consultation, as these will still be considered.
We are asking for any additional views, particularly with regards to any relevant changes that may have taken place in the area since March 2020 that impact on the proposals under consideration. New proposals will not be considered.
Your views will be fully considered when the Council makes its final decisions on the deferred proposals later in the year. For more information, please visit https://letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk/cgr call 0300 1234 100 or contact your local council.