Everyone knows that district and similar councils are under the financial cosh. These provide hundred of services, some of which are statutory, others more discretionary. The latter are obviously the vulnerable ones
West Berkshire Council has identified (though not widely shared) about fifty which it’s planning to cut, ranging from street lights to verge trimming and from dog bins to resource centres. It’s also suggested that the situation represents an opportunity for towns and parishes, the lowest layer of the democracy pyramid, to respond to local demand and fill the gap.
Well, yes and no. I don’t know how such discussions are going elsewhere: but here in WB I get the strong impression that there’s not been enough communication about what the real situation is and what services might need to be, as the euphemism is, devolved.
Four aspects need to be clarified:
- What services might be cut by WBC (or fill in the name of your own authority).
- What the statutory minimum provision of each service is (which might be zero).
- What level of each service is currently provided to that parish.
- Whether WBC can continue provide any services in addition to the statutory minimum and, if so, how much it will charge.
If WBC doesn’t know the answers to every single one of these questions then it ought to.
There’s a perfectly good case to be made by WBC to the parishes, and by the parishes to their residents, that this change needs to happen. Yes, we might need to pay in our parish precepts (increases in which are not limited, unlike with council tax) to pay for services previously provided by the parent authority. With the right communication and explanation, people might accept this.
However, this takes time. The parishes need the information summarised above to decide what they feel their residents want and then, if necessary, to ask them. The decisions will have implications for their 2026-27 budgets. If this is left too late then there’ll be recriminations, stress and poor decisions.
The question of what services WBC might continue to provide, for a fee – “additionality” is the euphemism in this case – is particularly important if we’re to avoid a postcode lottery.
Probably only the the three towns (Hungerford, Thatcham and Newbury) and a few larger parishes like Burghfield, Pangbourne, Mortimer and Lambourn currently have the staff and the structure to take on managing any services themselves.
Most parishes are small, run by volunteers (as all are), staffed by Clerks who might work a day a week if that and possessed of no easy way of communicating with residents.
A few, like Winterbourne and Fawley, are non-precepting and so have no capacity at all either to absorb extra services or to pay for them.
Solutions to this potential three-tier problem can be found. In Compton, for instance, the parish council recently suggested itself as a hub for the pop-up library service to assist its even smaller neighbours. Enborne has been looking ways of working with its own neighbours to reduce overheads and share resources. Several parishes currently have joint ownership of SIDs to combat speeding.
This kind of co-operation might be needed for other services as well. The parishes cannot, however, help either themselves or each other until they know exactly what is being asked of them. The more delay there is from WBC, the worse the situation will become.
Many services, once stopped, become difficult or expensive to resume. A waste bin, if no longer to be emptied, needs to removed. Restoring it later will cost money. The decision about whether the parish should retain it, and how much it will cost, takes time to make.
I’m sympthetic to WBC’s situation. So too, I suspect, would be many parishes, were they to know exactly what they might need to take on. This sympathy will, however, diminish with every week that passes without a clear and universal plan.
Parishes can be WBC’s allies in addressing this funding crisis that’s not of either of their making. What WBC should avoid is withholding or drip-feeding information and so turning them into frustrated enemies. It needs to act now to communicate this new reality and the choices that are required.
Brian Quinn
