Your parish Council.
Who we are
Forget the traditional image of a Parish Council with crusty retired admirals and ladies in sensible shoes and Hermes scarves discussing the village fete.
Forget, too, please, the Vicar of Dibley's meetings which are neither Parochial Parish Council (church matters) nor secular Parish Council.
Though we may have our moments, Donnington Parish Council is part of the third tier of Local Government after West Sussex County Council and Chichester District
We consist of volunteers, mostly unpaid members, all formally elected or selected for a term of four years. Our Clerk is our appointed officer authorised to ensure all our proceedings are in accordance with statute. She also holds our Parish accounts which are strictly audited annually. The Council itself calculates and bids to District for our annual precept or budget, which we do our best to ensure stays with the rate of inflation. We are proud that this small levy added to household council tax is one of the lowest in the District.
Council Meetings
Parish Council meetings are held in Donnington Parish Hall, Stockbridge Road, normally on the second Tuesday of January, March, May, July, September and November starting at 7.30 pm. Meetings usually last no more than 2 hours. Councillors are always pleased to welcome residents to council meetings whether just to hear about what is going on in the Parish and, if appropriate, and with prior notification to the Parish Clerk, to address the Council on topics which are of particular interest to them.
In addition, the annual Parish Assembly will take place on Monday,16th May. The Parish Assembly is the opportunity to hear a summary of all the significant events in the parish over the year and for residents to question Councillors on any matter relating to the parish.
Our responsibilities
Nowadays, we receive huge amounts of correspondence from many bodies for comment. This the Clerk passes around on a regular basis allowing us to add our views and identify important items for Council agendas.
Besides our responsibility for maintenance of the Playing Field in Wiston Avenue and Southfields Avenue, we also have a shared responsibility with County for footpath work. We must also be consulted by District on all planning applications within the Parish. We have a small sub-group to handle this, and we invite anybody with concerns to contact us so we can comment fairly and objectively.
Whilst we are not experts in Local Authority matters, we attend training in our responsibilities and take part in a wide range of meetings held by many bodies on local matters. We also draw on the expertise of our Parish Clerk as well as benefiting from the advice and influence of our County and District Councillors.
Our role
We, therefore, see our major role very much as representing local views, a role we try to fulfil by using our notice boards, our regular newsletters and by holding open meetings, but most of all be seeking members from across the Parish who are able to discuss local concerns with friends and neighbours and keep their ears to the ground for local views.
Our strength, we believe, lies also in being strictly non-political so we can express local opinion fairly and democratically to County and District alike.
By means of this web site, therefore, we hope to create a new avenue for increased views and comment to help us fulfil our role more effectively.