Community councils

A community council is a public representative body in Great Britain.

In England they may be statutory parish councils by another name, under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, or they may be non-statutory bodies. In Scotland and Wales they are statutory bodies.

Scottish community councils were first created under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, many years after Scottish parish councils were abolished by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929.

Welsh community councils are a direct replacement for earlier parish councils, under the Local Government Act 1972, and are identical to English parish councils in terms of their powers and the way they operate.

In England, a parish council can call itself a community council, as an 'alternative style' under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. In the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham and the London Borough of Southwark non-statutory consultation bodies have been established, called community councils. There are thirty-eight charitable Rural Community Councils with a rural development function, covering areas such as community planning, community buildings support, rural transport schemes and rural affordable housing (exception sites). The rural community councils are linked by the charity ACRE Action with Communities in Rural England (www.acre.org.uk) and form the Rural Community Action Network (RCAN)

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