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The Parish Council

Your Parish Councillors are here to help and to represent you. Find out what they do by reading the agendas and minutes and how you can have your say in local matters. If we aren't the correct authority to deal with your query, we will happily point you in the right direction, and represent you if necessary. You can contact the Parish Clerk here.

About the Council


Members of the Brizlincote Parish Council are unpaid local people, elected by the local people. Elections are every four years.

Local volunteers, however, may be co-opted when there are not enough candidates for seats at an election or when the electorate does not call for an election after a seat has fallen vacant. There are 11 seats on Brizlincote Parish Council

The Parish Council forms a corporate body with a legal existence separate from that of its members. It is accountable to the electorate and it can be taken to court: as a body, it is responsible for its actions.

The Parish Clerk is the Council's professional Officer: this means that the clerk is not similar to a secretary simply taking the minutes at meetings, dealing with correspondence and archiving documents. The clerk is a qualified officer providing both professional advice concerning the laws of governance and administrative support to the Council. Answerable only to the Parish Council as a whole, the clerk takes action to implement council decisions and acts as its finance administrator.

The Parish Council meets monthly, and comprises of the following members

The ESBC councillors and Staffordshire County Council Councillor attend the Parish Council meetings to provide local information and feedback to their respective councils issues raised at the meeting.

Members of the public are encouraged to attend the meetings; there is a public participation section on the agenda where they may raise any issues relevant to the Brizlincote Parish. A member of the local Press (Burton Mail) also attends the meeting to record and report on issues being discussed.

Residents pay the 'precept' that is decided by the Parish Council every year to meet its budgeted expenditure and to carry out the needs of the parish. The precept is the Parish Council's share of the council tax collected by East Staffordshire Borough Council.

East Staffordshire Borough Council also spends money on behalf of Brizlincote Parish Council for responsibilities not yet devolved to the Parish (e.g. Highways, Cemeteries etc.).

The Parish Council must publish the parish budget showing how and where the precept will be spent: the decisions to approve the expenditure, before the next financial year, are made at a council's public meeting and these resolutions are recorded as minutes.

History of the Parish Council


On April 1st 2003, East Staffordshire Borough Council (ESBC) completed the parishing of its principal town of Burton upon Trent, creating the parishes of Anglesey, Branston, Brizlincote, Burton, Horninglow and Eton, Shobnall, Stapenhill, and Winshill.

Determination was given to what functions and responsibilities would transfer from ESBC to the new Parish Councils. Currently the Parish Councils have precepted for their own functions but have yet to take transfer of other functions from the Borough Council.
 
ESBC believe that the process of transferring responsibilities and activity should be done incrementally rather than in one operation.
                                     
The Brizlincote Parish Council has responsibilities for the following:
 

 
The Brizlincote Parish council logo is based on the fact that Brizlincote is Saxon for a clearing in the forest, and the Parish is situated in a valley.