Who we are
Millom Without Parish Council is a local council, the first tier of local government, in our case beneath Copeland Borough Council.
We serve an electorate, with individual councillors being either elected by public vote or if there are insufficient candidates compared to the number of seats available, no election will take place and candidates are deemed to be elected. If vacancies on the council remain after elections, individuals may be co-opted to serve in the council (voted onto the council by the existing members).
A Chairman is selected from the council members. The Clerk is a paid employee of the council whose responsibilities include arranging meetings and maintaining correct governance of the council’s business. The Clerk is often the first point of contact for the council.
All councillors must conform to a code of conduct and declarations of interest covering financial or other interests must be completed and made available to the public.
What we do
The aim of all local councils is to improve community well-being and help provide better services and our work at Millom Without Parish Council falls into three main categories:
We have an extensive range of discretionary powers to provide and maintain a variety of important and visible local services. For local councils in general, these can include; allotments, bridleways, burial grounds, bus shelters, car parks, commons and open spaces, community transport schemes, community safety and crime reduction measures, events and festivals, footpaths, leisure and sports facilities, litter bins, public toilets, planning, street cleaning and lighting, tourism activities, traffic calming measures, village greens and youth projects. The remit of the Millom Without Parish Council covers many of these areas.
One of the main areas of Parish Council business is in the scrutiny of planning applications. All planning applications within the Millom Without Parish are discussed by the council and relevant comments may be passed on to the Planning Authority (Copeland Borough Council), where the ultimate decision is made.
Finance
Millom Without Parish Council has the ability to spend small amounts of money on items which provide a benefit to the community, for example, the maintenance of the grass verges and trees along the highway at the entrance to The Green.
In order to fulfil our duties we receive funding called a precept (a form of council tax). We also raise a small amount of income from rental of parking spaces on land we own at the Pinnel Hole.
These records and all other records concerning financial aspects of the council’s work and our governance can be found in the Document Library
Meetings
Meetings are held ten times a year.
All meetings are open to the public with notice of a meeting being posted at least three days ahead of the meeting date.
The normal business of the meeting (Standing Orders) are discussed between members of the council but there is always time made available for members of the public to address the meeting on a matter that concerns them.
Agendas for upcoming meetings and minutes of past meetings can be found in the Document Library
Projects
Millom Without Parish Council was instrumental in setting up the Southern Boundary Partnership. This group brings together the Parishes along the Duddon Estuary to look at the proposed southern boundary change of the Lake District National Park. Work within this community group continues.
The most recent, and most ambitious project that Millom Without Parish Council have undertaken has been to conduct a parish-wide survey of residents to help put together a parish community plan. Consultations took place over a period of around twelve months during which a number of key areas for development were identified.
The initial findings of the consultation were presented in the Community Plan, Issue 1 May 2019.
Work has been progressing in each of the key areas and an updated Action Plan was issued as a Project Monitoring Report on 1 June 2020.