At one of the White Hart Debates a local resident came forward with this point which is being addressed through the sustainable communities act.

This is Paine’s point thanks to his belief that;

“THE RIGHT OF VOTING FOR REPRESENTATION IS THE PRIMARY RIGHT BY WHICH OTHER RIGHTS ARE PROTECTED”

This is the status quo:

A PARISH COUNCIL is a statutory form of local government involving at least five councillors being subject to a statutory code of conduct, meeting at least quarterly, with legal powers to raise and manage funding and to own land, it therefore provides a basic level of statutory local representation.

A PARISH MEETING is a NON statutory form of local community organisation with only two representatives who are NOT subject to a code of conduct being required to hold only two meetings per year with NO legal rights to raise community funds or own community land, it does NOT provide a basic level of statutory local representation.

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION is discouraged in Parish Meetings by limitations on fund raising and land ownership, ACCOUNTABILITY and impartiality potentially compromised by the absence of a code of conduct. The Local Government Ombudsman has recently been asked  to “consider the integrity of decision making” by representatives of Parish Meetings.There are 1180 Parish Meetings in England.  TEN villages in Sussex are still represented by a Parish Meeting, SIX of which are within the Lewes district. There are as many as 300,000 people left living in the UK in communities organised as a Parish Meeting, without the benefits of statutory representation provided by a parish council.

This proposal was put forward- democracy in action!

“A review of local government at parish level, review of areas that do not have a parish council, to look at the governance of those areas and the process of creating parish councils in those areas.  Particular attention being given to the relevance of the Parish Meeting to the sustainable community of the 21st century, where ALL citizens should have a basic level of statutory local representation which is fair inclusive and fit for purpose. The process of community governance review to require local discussion and a secret ballot in order to encourage full community participation.”

Watch this space for developments…..