The latest press on the subject of urban parish councils can be found on the BBC News website and a full page feature in last Wednesday’s Guardian (see links below).
From government ministers and whitehall mandarins, to community champions and 1000s of Westminster residents, the Campaign for a Queen’s Park Community Council is what everyone is talking about.
Councillors and Council Clerks from parishes elsewhere in England have come to meet with Queen’s Park residents to pass on their experience and offer their support. One Councillor from Milton Keynes said of the Question Time event held at the Beehoven Centre last Thursday: “It was a really good evening. Some Parish & Town Council’s could learn from the enthusiasm and energy that was there last night”. Stevenage Council Clerk Linda Larter who has a staff of 150 said, “you have 9,000 Council Clerks behind your campaign, it’s really excellent.”
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) have also offered their support to the Queen’s Park Campaigners, a spokesman for the DCLG said: “As the tier of local government closest to their communities, parish, town and neighbourhood councils have a key role to play in our vision for localism and the Big Society, and the Localism Bill will enhance the role of these local councils to help shape their communities. Where people want a new local council, they should be able to have one and we wish the people of Queens Park well in their bid to create a new neighbourhood council.”
For links to press coverage so far…
Dave Hill’s London Blog (May 2011)
Local Government Chronicle (May 2011)
Westminster Chronicle (May 2011)
[...] a listing of older press articles see the Talk of the Town blog [...]