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The Parish Council Key
Datasheets are currently being updated - latest counts and details can be seen at -
http://www.oscar-research.co.uk/parishcouncils.html
13,966 clerks and chairmen in 11,220 Parish, Town & Community Councils in England, Scotland & Wales
Parish, Town and Community Councils - an overview
Parish and town councils are the first tier of Local Government. In recent years, they have been encouraged by central government to take a greater role in community democracy which has resulted in some new councils being formed. Any village, neighbourhood or town beneath district or borough level can demand its own elected parish or town council. This only applies to England outside greater London and does not apply to Wales or Scotland where different regulations apply. In Wales and Scotland they are mostly called Community councils. To summarise, a parish council represents the concerns and hopes of a specific community or geographic area.
How the data is organised
The Parish Council Key is a database of the clerks and chairmen of all parish, town and community councils throughout England, Scotland & Wales. The town councils are mostly larger organisations than the parish & community councils and the contacts there are usually based at an office address. However most of the parish and community councils are very small and the contact addresses are usually home addresses of the clerks. Some clerks undertake the role for several councils. It should be noted that many clerks will hold full time jobs which are not in any way connected with their parish council duties therefore contact by telephone during the working day will not normally be possible in such cases.
Numbers given below are for the whole UK , but addresses may also be selected by postcode or by the administrative county within which the address is situated.
