Parish Petition Referendum

The Community Campaign's initiative to force Hart District Council to finally do something and allow the people of Fleet & Church Crookham the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of being within a parished area, is starting to see some positive results.

A process has been started to identify a strategy for defining the parishes which might be formed. The process is looking at if the unparished area is to be parished should a number of smaller and more locally focused parishes or one large centralized parish be created. Already a “sense of place” questionnaire has been issued to a random selection of households in the area and this will be followed in the new year with a postal referendum for all electors in the unparished area asking if they want to be parished and if so which size of parish they would prefer.

The Community Campaign have been instrumental in ensuring that if there are to be smaller parishes that the people of Courtmoor will have a say as to which parish they would like to belong; a parish consisting of Courtmoor & Church Crookham or the parish of Fleet. There has been much argument in the Council over this. The major parties which for many years have been reluctant to release their grip on the unparished area see Courtmoor blindly as a postcode and are looking to include Courtmoor in the Fleet parish.

The Community Campaign take a different view and believe that Courtmoor is a significant part of the community that resides 'south of the canal'. Cllr. James Radley has publicly commented that "When you cross between Church Crookham and Courtmoor you see no discernible boundary (apart from perhaps the odd road sign). We are all part of the same suburban area. We share the same amenities such as parks and play grounds and we suffer from the same problems & issues. Therefore it makes sense that the area south of the canal is considered as a single entity."

The exact structure of the postal referendum is to be decided by Hart's full Council meeting on 25th October. However the Community Campaign will be pressing very hard for keeping the clause in the proposal which we had inserted that will give the people of Courtmoor the chance to say to which parish they would wish to belong.

The Community Campaign is determined that once the results of the referendum are known the Council should not continue to delay the formation of the parishes any longer. We shall insist that the Council accept what we expect will be a reinforced mandate from the electorate. We shall look to the Council to accept the need to separate the formation of the parishes from any further delay caused by the boundary review.

To make the newly formed parishes as effective as possible we suggest that when the referendum is held residents vote for the formation of a cluster of smaller parishes; for instance, a parish for Courtmoor & Church Crookham and a parish for Fleet. Theses parishes would naturally work together to support wider strategic initiatives such as the well being of Fleet Town Centre & allotment provision, while maintaining a tight focus on local issues – such as providing youth facilities & play areas.

Original Parish Petition announcement

During April and May 2006, the Community Campaign collected signatures on a petition to form a Parish Council for Church Crookham & Courtmoor. We needed to collect signatures from 10% of the electorate within the area which was requesting that it be parished. That is roughly 940 signatures. Having been supported by an incredible petitioning team we managed to raise over 2000 signatures.


On Thursday 8th June 2006 Alison Macallan, pictured right, accompanied by a small contingent of the local residents who have been helping with the petition, delivered it to Hart District Council Offices in Fleet. Hart's electoral services team have to validate the petition and then Hart Council need to decide how to respond. They can either conduct a simple consultation with the people who would be affected or they could consider a detailed but costly review of all the parish boundaries in the district.

Given the prevailing mood, with the Council finely balanced between the various parties, some political shenanigans can unfortunately be expected.

A big thank you to those of you who signed the petition.

What is a Parish Council?

The Hampshire Association of Parish and Town Councils define a Parish Council as;

Parish Councils are very influential and are typically very adept at providing first line representation for their community within the wider local government machine.

Parish Councils may take responsibility for;

• Youth facilities & playgrounds
• Open spaces and local sports facilities
• Future provision of allotments
• Street furniture (shelters, litter bins, etc)

Parish Councils also take responsibility for being a primary consultee on planning applications and giving a local perspective on any high level planning policy being set by the District or County Council.

Why would I want a Parish Council?

A Parish Council would allow you a wider involvement in the handling of local issues.

• A Parish Council (PC) would give you a greater say on how the money you already pay for local amenities gets spent. There is no reason to expect that a PC would cost you more.
• The Parish Council would act as the primary community consultee for local planning applications.
• The Parish Councillors will be able to take a more active role in planning consultation, without needing to reserve judgement in case an application comes before Hart’s Planning Committee.

The majority of the residents in Hart are already represented by a Parish/Town Council. All villages, big & small have a parish council, even the small towns such as Yately have a Town Council. It is only Fleet, Courtmoor & Church Crookham that don't benefit from having this local level of democratically elected representation.

Members of Parish Councils are voted for by the electorate that they represent. You can nominate your own candidate, perhaps someone you know, that you trust and who is active in the community. You might like to be a Parish Councillor yourself. If you have an interest in making your local area a better place to live and believe that you have something to offer your community you should think about standing to be a Parish Councillor when the Parish Council is formed.

As far as we know, no Hart village or town with a Parish/Town Council is seeking to disband it. People feel that their Parish/Town Councils represent them very effectively, they certainly trust their local Parish more than they trust Hart. It is interesting that some political parties are spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt) about what it would cost. The majority of Conservative Councillors come from areas with a Parish Council and they support them, they don't discourage them.

Will it cost me more?

Parish Councils levy a precept upon the people who live in the area they represent. This money is spent by the Parish Council on such things as maintaining children's playgrounds & community centres, providing allotments, and addressing other local needs.

You might think that at least by being unparished you save money by not paying a precept. Sadly this is not the case. In the new council year 2006/07 residents of Hart Parish Councils will pay the following precepts;

Crondall	£39.86
Crookham Village	£17.58
Dogmersfield	£36.31
Hartley Wintney	£68.74
Hook	£87.88
Odiham	£42.42
Winchfield	£11.82
Yateley	£48.11
Fleet & Church Crookham	£47.18

All quoted are band ‘D’ rates.

Those of us in the unparished area are paying £47.18 into ‘Fleet & Church Crookham Special Expenses’. How the money paid to Parish Councils gets spent is decided by the elected members of the Parish. The money is allocated to projects at meetings which local residents can attend. The money paid by the residents of Fleet & Church Crookham goes into ‘Special Expenses’ a fund that lurks within Hart’s murky accounts.

It is possible for a Parish Council to increase taxes, but they can also keep them constant or even reduce them. It depends on what they choose to spend the money on.

For interest out of the £647,500 that Fleet & Church Crookham people pay in special expenses, £350,400 is for the running costs of the Harlington Centre. That is over 50% of your "parish precept" or by over £25 a year that each band D household is subsidizing the Harlington Centre. People from Zebon Copse only pay £17.58 a year for their parish precept - that is in total. They don't pay a penny to Hart for the running of the Harlington centre - but then they are lucky they have a parish council.

So if you elect a parish council that is able to run the Harlington Centre at a lower cost or makes a decision to hand the Harlington Centre back to all the people of Hart - then there is a massive saving to be had which can be spent on local amenities or which could be used to reduce the parish precept.

It has also been suggested that a Parish Council would require a building, which would obviously be expensive. However the PC could just as easily rent a local facility such as the Willis Hall in Sandy Lane or one of the local church halls. This would cost little over £5 an hour, not much to pay for the benefit of holding meetings that decide how our money gets spent in public. Further the money we pay into Hart's Special Expenses will almost certainly be put against internal Hart cost centres that will carry a mark up for facilities charges. Thinking about it if the PC continues to fund the Harlington Centre - could they not use that for PC meetings for free?

Finally we should all note that; Parish Council's can access funds for specific projects from other places, such as Hampshire County Council and the Countryside Agency.

All of these factors really do suggest that we can reasonably expect that the parish precept will NOT exceed what we currently pay Hart.

What does the petition achieve?

By act of Parliament local people can petition for a new parish. This petition needs to be signed by not less than 250 electors or not less than 10% of the electorate of the area to be parished (whichever is the greater). We calculate that there are roughly 9,500 electors in the area that the proposed parish would serve.

Hampshire Association of Parish and Town Councils tell us :- "Southsea Town Council was set-up in April 1999, following a petition of 2,169 electors. The Government was quick to support the democratic wishes of the electorate in Southsea. There is a major trend in England for new urban parish/town councils, and in the last 5 years over 100 have been set up."

Why include Courtmoor with Church Crookham?

There are three reasons why we believe that it makes good sense for Courtmoor and Church Crookham to join forces;

1. An area of 10,000 electors is a good size for a Parish Council. It can benefit from economies of scale (be cheaper to run) while not being so big that it losses its local focus.
2. There is a sense shared by many of belonging to "the Community south of the canal".
   
3. Parish Councils ideally have an obvious physical boundary - and the canal is one such obvious boundary. The eastern boundary is Rushmoor and the South and South Western boundaries are already parished. So the Government could not complain that we have chosen an arbitrary area.
4. People of Courtmoor have commented to us that they fear that if they where part of Fleet Town Council that their concerns would be drowned out by the needs of other parts of Fleet. The people of Courtmoor & Church Crookham would have a more equitable balance of representation on a Church Crookham & Courtmoor parish.
   

What about the rest of Fleet?

Fleet also deserves a Town Council. However we simply don't have the resources to petition an area of that size. The people of Fleet can always run their own petition, however realistically we are doing all the necessary work for them. Fleet will almost certainly be offered a Town Council of their own as a consequence of Church Crookham & Courtmoor being granted one.

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The Hampshire Association of Parish and Town Councils has produced an informative pamphlet entitled "How to set up a New Parish/Town Council in your Community". The Community Campaign have a stock of these and you are welcome to have one - just send us an e-mail to petition@ccguk.com.

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