Parish, Town and Local Councils

If you’re a clerk or otherwise responsible for running a parish, town or other local council, then you’re embedded in local democratic and public service delivery.

In many cases, those who use your council’s services will be known to you or the council’s members personally, with an inevitable increase in the scope for actual or alleged conflicts of interest. In these circumstances, ensuring that you have robust governance procedures in place will be really important if you’re successfully to manage the council’s relationship with its local residents and other stakeholders. However, you will also need to ensure that you fully understand the requirements of the district and county councils with which you will need to work in order to deliver your services. These are all issues where we have significant expertise that we can share with you.

Although your authority may be “small”, the issues and problems that you have to deal with will be just as significant for your council as compared with the problems that are faced by larger councils. It’s not just the amount of money that’s at stake as you will inevitably be responsible for resolving points of principle and addressing reputational risks that would be a challenge for any public sector body. For example this may involve the controversial but necessary disposal of a heritage asset, or how you deal with an issue such as flood protection may set a precedent for similar organisations. The fact that we have enormous experience of all tiers of government in respect of such issues will be of considerable assistance to you.

If you feel that we could help your organisation with advice in this area, please contact a member of our Parish, Town and Local Council's Group.

Services provided

• General litigation
• Legal advice