Parish Council

You will all be aware that it is proposed to do away with Runnymede Borough Council and all the other councils in Surrey and to divide the County into two or possibly three Unitary Authorities. This process will lead to there being a lower number of local Council Representatives serving larger areas with a considerably further distance between local needs and administering body and greater competition between resources and their allocation.

A proposal has been made to introduce ‘Consultative Committees’ on which local residents could have their say, but these would cover a significantly larger area than Englefield Green, have no powers nor any funding. Experience indicates they would simply be talking shops.

It is our opinion, which we hope you support, a Parish Council could provide local control over local matters and would be directly answerable to local people.

The Forum applied to form a Parish Council earlier this year, and we can now report that recently the full council of Runnymede Council unanimously approved that they should proceed with the legal process necessary to assess whether a Parish Council for Englefield should be approved and then established.

This process is, we are told, likely to take about a year, and importantly at an early stage residents will be asked for and have taken into account their opinion.

So, a long way to go yet, but we hope you will support us and help promote the forming of a Parish Council when asked.

We will be issuing information about the pros and cons of a Parish Council to keep you informed in the near future.