Last chance to have your say on proposed parish changes

Final decisions are about to be made on the set-up of parish and village councils in the Chelmsford area and the City Council is giving residents one more chance to have a say.

Public Consultation

Last year, residents were asked to give their feedback on draft recommendations made for the structure of parish and village councils around the district, as part of a “Community Governance Review (CGR)”.

479 responses were received by the City Council both online and through mail. All the responses were taken into account and a Final Recommendations report has been drafted.

Final Recommendations

The final report from the CGR will be discussed next week at the City Council’s Governance Committee meeting on 9 March at 7.00pm. The meeting is being held online, and you will be able to watch it on FB Live.

This will be your chance to ask questions and learn more about the Final Recommendations which affect your local area.

If the Governance Committee approve the report on 9 March, it will recommend that Full Council adopt it in their next meeting on 31 March.

Significant changes expected in Chelmsford

There are two significant proposals, which were both backed by feedback from residents. It is proposed to create two new parishes:

1) for the Chelmsford Garden Community (including Beaulieu, Channels and the area to the north) to have its own, single voice (rather than be divided up between four parishes) and

2) for Chelmer Village to have its own council, separate from the current Springfield Parish Council.

There are other less substantial changes in the Final Recommendations report, such as adjustments of parish and parish ward boundaries and numbers of parish councillors.

The parishes that will be affected are Danbury, Great and Little Leighs, Margaretting, Roxwell, Sandon, West Hanningfield, Runwell, Writtle, Galleywood, Great Baddow, Broomfield, Little Waltham, Boreham and Springfield.

A full list of parishes and their recommended changes is available in the Final Recommendations report.

Public Question Time

If you have any questions or suggestions which you would like to raise at the Governance Committee meeting on 9 March, you can do so during Public Question Time.

Keep in mind that any suggestions must:

• be supported by evidence
• have been brought to the authority’s attention during the CGR
• have been consulted upon or raised through the consultation process.

This means that you can’t propose new ideas and arrangements at the meeting.

How to submit your questions

You will need to submit your question or suggestion 24 hours before the meeting to committees@chelmsford.gov.uk. All valid questions will be published with the agenda on the website at least six hours before the start time and will be responded to at the meeting.

If you have submitted a valid question or statement, you will be entitled to ask the question in person at the meeting – provided you have indicated that you wish to do so and have submitted an email address to which an invitation to join the meeting can be sent.