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General A Parish Council is a body of eligible volunteer Councillors with a Chairman and Vice Chairman. The number of Councillors is fixed by the district council (being Chorley Borough Council) - Astley Village Parish Council has 10 Councillors. The Council as a corporate bodyA Parish Council, originally created under a Government Act of 1894, is an elected body corporate made up of a minimum of 5 Councillors including an annually elected Chairman. An election is held every four years and qualified persons nominate themselves for office. If an election is held, the council will be voted in to serve the electorate of that parish (explained in more detail below). If during the four year period there is a vacancy due to a resignation or other reason, following the advertisement of the vacancy by the Borough Council the Parish Council is permitted to co-opt someone to fill the vacancy. Further details on the criteria and methods of becoming a Council are attached here -Procedure The Council has the power to appoint a Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer to carry out its work and decisions. Meetings are held in public and publicised to residents. A Parish Council has powers to exclude press and public from meetings for certain private matters and should hold at least 3 meetings plus an Annual meeting per year (explained in more detail below and on the Meetings Page). The council is able to carry out functions under powers in many different statutory acts. It has the power to precept and spend an amount on items it sees as a benefit to the area or inhabitants, sometimes referred to as the free resource. It can consider matters on which it has powers to act for the benefit and within the interests of its electorate but has a responsibility for sound financial management. When taking decisions the Council considers legislature such as; section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, Freedom of Information Act and concepts such as best value. The whole Council is subject to an election every 4 years approx (last being May 2007). The Council is a body and is distinct from its members (either as individuals or collectively) and its acts, assets and liabilities are its own and not those of its members. Councillors are volunteers and as such receive no payment. The Parish Council is made up of 10 Parish councillors whose terms of office expires on the date of the next election being May 2011. The Parish Council obtains its funding from what is known as the precept. This comes from the local element of residents council tax collected by the Borough Council (approx £20.00 in 2010/2011 for a band D property) see more here. Astley Village covers an area of 212 acres and the village has approximately 2,600 electors and population of 3,329 people. Previous years precept requests were: 2009/2010 £23,341 2008/2009 £22,640 Astley Village Parish Council is a public authority listed in Part II of Schedule 1 of this Act and is subject to Section 19 adoption and maintenance of a publication scheme, approved by the Information Commissioner. Astley Village Parish Council adopted this scheme on 7 January 2004, and the updated version on 5 November 2008 which is published on this website Link Here. Councillors give their time freely to attend meetings. There are 10 programmed full council meetings which are held 10 months per year - see Meetings details. Other meetings, besides the full Council meetings there may be committee or sub-committee meetings. There is one annual meeting called the Annual Parish Meeting, this is a public meeting for parishioners and must be held between 1 March and 1 June. The Parish Council depends on its members being able to make time to attend the meetings and the Local Government Act specifies the amount of meetings which can be missed before ceasing to be a Councillor, this is also stressed in the Council's Standing Orders*. *(Standing Orders are the rules Astley Village Parish Council adhere to besides The National Code of Local Government Conduct) These documents can be found on the Council Documents page. The business of the Council is managed by the Clerk (an employee of the Council). The Clerk is not a Councillor and does not make decisions for the Council but does advise of developments, law, requirements etc. The Clerk manages the Council business such as the financial matters, employee supervision, minutes, meeting arrangements, paperwork, agendas, noticeboards, continuous projects, council assets, emergency repairs etc. The Council and its Clerk can be contacted HERE. The Parish Council is responsible for the amenities it provides such as its own seats, noticeboards, open space etc. Responsibility for other items such as footpaths, street lighting, litter bins etc lies with the Borough or Council Councils. The Parish Council has input into matters which effect the village such as planning applications (see below for more info on planning) , which are controlled by Chorley Borough Council but which are copied to the Parish for comments /recommendations /suggestions /objections etc. The Parish Council is non-political. It is solely involved in issues, items and developments for the village's benefit and assistance. All decisions are decided by vote. Each Councillor has one vote with the Chairman of the Council having one vote, but also one casting vote, if needed. May 2007 Elections By-election information link here . Local Planning - Chorley Borough Council is the planning authority for this area and it makes the decisions on planning applications. The Parish Council is consulted on planning applications in the village. It receives copies of plans and drawings for the larger applications and can request the same for the smaller applications. A list of recent applications in the village can be see on our Planning page. The consultation period for a Parish Council is 21 days from the applications’ publication date. When the weekly list is received the Clerk extracts the relevant local applications and communicates these to Councillors. Astley Village Parish Council meet every month and consider the current applications. Chorley Borough Council weekly planning lists can seen or printed from their website, use the link below, or you can inspect plans at the Council Offices, telephone 01257 515230. Click on ‘Planning Online’ and then ‘Weekly Planning Lists’
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