Support for parish councils
Parish Liaison and Local Devolution
North Yorkshire Council is one of only 6 councils with over 200 Parish Sector organisations within its boundary. There are 600 parish councils in North Yorkshire, twice as many as the next nearest council.
Working closely with Legal and Democratic Services, the Parish Liaison and Local Devolution Team works alongside the county’s Parish Sector organisations offering a range of support including the development and implementation of the Parish Charter; arrangements for effective engagement, consultation and parish liaison; and providing a single ‘front’ door interface for town and parish councils.
The team is also responsible for managing the Council’s corporate arrangements for the devolution of council assets and services to town and parish councils and community groups and the Council’s statutory Community Rights responsibilities including Assets of Community Value and Community Right to Challenge.
Parish Charter
A review of the Parish Charter has been undertaken, this included a review of the commitments within the charter and how they were being applied.
A further review is being undertaken in 2025/26 to embed the Parish Liaison work that has been developed within the Charter, this will confirm and further develop/embed commitments within the Charter throughout NYC and will help establish baseline information for performance and service monitoring.
The Parish Charter commitments form the basis of the Parish Teams work on behalf of Parish Councils (Parish Liaison)
Parish Liaison
Parish Liaison drop-in sessions/meetings took place across North Yorkshire with the main Parish Liaison meetings supported by Democratic Services, Highways and Planning. They have been extremely well attended with representation, in person, from over 100 Parish Councils
There will be a review of format and content, and a regular programme of further meetings will be organised commencing late summer 2025.
A regular update to all Parish Council started in August, this is now monthly and brings together all information relevant to Parish Councils from across NYC. There have been 7 updates distributed
Separate e-mail updates for individual services were also introduced to ensure consistency and accuracy. At the end of 2024/25, 21 Council communications had been sent out
A single e-mail address for the Parish Liaison team was introduced which has been helpful in assisting Parish Councils to contact appropriate services.
Parish Consultation Panel
A representative group of Parish/Town/City Councils and Parish Meetings has been established to provide regular informal dialogue with the Parish Sector.
This panel has been consulted regularly on a range of issues with the latest being content and format for a dedicated Parish Council web site web pages etc. as well as broader Parish Liaison activities.
Parish Portal/Parish Website
The Parish Liaison Team have successfully supported the transition of Parish Councils from the Parish Portal to the Customer Portal for Highways reporting.
A dedicated Parish Council website is being developed that will be available in 2025/26.
Local Devolution
In 2024/25 the work to support and empower town and parish councils and community groups has focused on the double devolution pilot proposals. Progress has been dependent on the availability of information due to restructures and the capacity of Parish Councils to develop and submit full business cases
The Assistant Director for Local Engagement will be reporting in June 2025, and this include a review of all approved Expressions of Interest and recommendations for further devolution proposals.
The Parish Liaison Team is working to develop a new Community Asset Transfer process and a consistent approach to devolution proposals for Parish Councils and Community Groups.
Community Rights
The transfer of responsibility and information from the previous area-based transitional arrangements took place in 2024/25. A single NYC area e-mail and contact form was introduced together with a central assessment and decision-making process introduced.
The team now have dedicated support and advice for Parish Councils and community groups and are working to develop new structures, policies, procedures, etc and will include the anticipated changes to the Assets of Community Value and Community Right to Challenge legislation.