Parish Council

How do you get to be a Parish Councilor

Parish elections are held every 4 years, the last one being in 2020. Any Parishioner can stand for election to the Council, initially by applying for an election "pack" from the Borough and following procedure laid down. When elected, all Parish Councillors must complete a "declaration of Interests" form for public record.

Parish Councillors must declare any "interests" they have in any matters debated at the meetings

Meetings - every 6 - 8 weeks Monday 7.00 p.m. in the Hall. Actual dates published in Tockus talk, the calendar and on the 3 notice boards in the Village.

 

Parish Council Employees

Tockholes Parish has one direct employee - The Clerk Judith Finney

Clerk - "Chief Executive" of the Parish Council whose duties include finance, communications and ensuring the many statutory requirements on the Parish Council are met.

 

The Role of The Parish Council

The Parish Council plays an important role as the grassroots level of Local Government, directly representing and promoting the interests of its community. Your Councillors are your unpaid representatives. Amongst other tasks, they take complaints from local residents seriously and deal with them appropriately with the relevant Officers and Departments within the Borough Council. The recent issues have mainly been centred around planning and roads.

Other services provided by the Parish Council include the maintenance of the benches, up-keep of the football pitch, Playground, Pinfold, Community Hall Lease, the Union Flag, Village Christmas Tree & lights, etc.

 

Information

Precept - the monies your Parish Council receives to pay for running the Village. This money is collected by the Borough Council in the form of Council Tax and paid annually to the Parish Council.

Audit - the Parish Council is audited annually by an independent auditor, to ensure the money is spent wisely.

For a detailed breakdown of expenditure for 2022 are available on request.

 

How the Parish Council make decisions

Ideas and issues are brought to the Parish Council for debate. The Councillors then vote on whether or not to implement the idea, following a strict code of conduct laid down in U.K. statute. Tockholes Parish Council adopted the Code of Conduct on the 12th November 2012. A minimum of 3 Councillors are needed to be present and the vote must be by majority. The decision is then implemented by the Clerk and/or Councillors.

 

Policies & Procedures

The Parish Council generally follows the policies of The Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Local Plan with regard to planning matters. The general procedure is to receive planning applications & copies from the Borough Council, debate the matter, vote on it and then send the decision back to the Borough Council.