Community Governance in Headley

Current situation

Headley already has a Parish Council which raises a precept from the local Council Tax and is subject to re-election every 4 years. They also control expenditure of the Neighbourhood element of Community Infrastructure Levy (paid by new developments).

Proposed change

In the initial round of consultation, the Parish Council proposed a change to its boundary, so the current consultation asks for your views on this. The change would extend the current parish boundary so that it includes the entire new developments at Headley Court. 

Without this change about 20 of the 70 new dwellings at Elivia's Headley Chase development and 27 of the apartments at the Audley retirement community would lie outside the current Parish boundary. The change does not effect any current residents.

Issues to consider

The Parish Council is proposing the changes for the following reasons

• It will avoid confusion among new residents about which Council provides “hyper-local” services and why some pay different levels of Council Tax;
• All new residents will be able to take a full part in village matters, including electing the Parish Councillors or standing for election;
• It will slightly increase the Parish Council’s Tax Base, spreading the cost of running the Parish Council over more properties. 

It is important that this proposal is seen to have community backing, so we would recommend that residents express their support for it.

Also you should note that experience with other areas suggests that moving to larger, more remote Unitary Councils may increase local demand for Parish Councils to take greater control of assets and services in their area. We encourage local residents to actively engage with their Parish Council if they have views on this.