Your Parish Council (PC) is an elected body in the first tier of local government. There are 11 Parish Councillors for Long Bennington.
We work towards improving community well-being and providing better services. Our activities fall into three main categories: representing the local community; delivering services to meet local needs; striving to improve quality of life and community well-being. The job of your PC is to represent the interests of the whole community whilst understanding the needs of different groups in the community (such as young and elderly people).
PCs can provide and maintain a variety of local services which include commons and open spaces, footpaths, allotments, leisure and sports facilities, war memorials, litter bins, development planning, street cleaning, community centres, public safety, rights of way. In addition to most of these we try to keep the village looking neat and tidy through contractors that we pay to mow verges and other grassed areas (partly supported by grants from Lincolnshire County Council) and make sure trees and hedges are maintained.
The Parish Council's principal role is to act to support, maintain and develop the community and its facilities. It establishes policies for action and decides how money will be raised and spent on behalf of the community. It is responsible for spending the money raised lawfully and without risk and for achieving the best value for money.
A very frequent and important function is Planning. When an application for planning permission is made the Planning Authority, South Kesteven District Council (SKDC), consult the community via the PC. The PC then often spend considerable time and energy deciding what recommendations or objections to make, particularly when groups of residents are affected. While the planning authority does not have to agree, it must consider the parish view before it decides to grant or refuse permission for a development. The PC welcomes and benefits from public comment on planning applications as this enables a direct representation of the community in our comments on planning applications. The PC needs to understand the procedures by which the planning authority makes decisions and influence policy of the planning authority SKDC. In practice this means communicating with the planning officers often via the District and/or County Councillors, bringing council officials to account for their decisions and policies before they are made and campaigning for fair and appropriate treatment, facilities, finance, priority and consideration for our parish.
Allied to planning is the authorship and maintenance of the Neighbourhood Plan which is the development plan for the Parish which supersedes the SKDC local plan (although it must be aligned with it). The neighbourhood plan gives the local community much more say about where new homes and industrial premises are built and what they should look like. The plan is drawn up working with the planning authority and is approved by an independent inspector before going to a community referendum.
The second most important role of the PC is the ownership and care of buildings and land within the Parish. The Parish owns the land and buildings of the Playing Fields and Pavilion which is in turn managed by a subcommittee (The Playing Fields Management Committee). The Parish also owns Witham Meadow (off Back Lane) which is a nature reserve and recreation facility, the Memorial Gardens off Main Road and sundry other pieces of land such as the space adjacent to the Village Hall. The PC does not own the Village Hall – this is owned by a trust set up from a bequest by a generous parishioner, many years ago, and is managed by a separate committee (which always includes a Parish Councillor).
The PC also keeps an eye on many other issues such as road safety, street lighting and maintenance. We bring to the attention of the County Highways Department road resurfacing that is needed and issues of parking and road usage (e.g. through our local Speedwatch group and the provision of 30 MPH warning signs).
The PC holds a meeting every month to carry out its business. All PC meetings are open to the public and members of the public may attend, record, and report the proceedings although they may not participate in the discussions. We always have public time allocated before each meeting so that members of the community may engage with us and bring their issues, requests and comments to the PC. Communication with the PC is easy – a phone call or an email to the council’s address (Contacts Page Link) will be received and responded to promptly.
We hold an Annual Parish Council Meeting in May of each year to elect a Chair and subcommittee officers and each year there is an Annual Parish Meeting, open to all electors of the Parish, who have the right not only to attend but also to speak on any matter of local interest.
The Parish Councillors are all volunteers and receive no financial benefit for their service. The Council has two employees: The Clerk carries out administrative duties, prepares budgets, carries out proper financial management, under the scrutiny of the councillors, organises and prepares the council meetings, records and publishes the agenda and minutes and looks after the statutory reporting duties as well as being the public face of the council to many residents. The second employee, funded in partnership with SKDC, is a community warden/cleaner that keeps our public spaces, roads and verges free from litter.
We welcome participation by all residents in PC plans and activities. Our contact details can be found here