Residents want a City Council for Salisbury

Published by Sonia Bennett for Salisbury District Council in Communities and also in Local Government

Salisbury District Council has won clear community support to do more work on the possibility of establishing a parish-level city council for Salisbury.

Nearly 700 Salisbury residents responded to the first stage of consultation on whether Salisbury should have its own city council.

A massive 85% said that the council should pursue the issue.

The law governing proposals to establish a new parish council initially requires a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ from the local community as to whether it wants the matter to be pursued.

Only then can the district council decide whether more detailed proposals are drawn up and discussed.

Now that the idea has won local support, it will be considered at the next available meeting of the City Area (Community) Committee.

If it decides to proceed to the next stage, detailed proposals, covering such issues as what assets a city council might have, how it could be financed and how many councillors there could be, will be drawn up for further consultation.

This phase of the consultation would take place over a three-month period. Comments would again be fed back to the City Area (Community) Committee, which would then decide whether to recommend the creation of a city council to Full Council.

Salisbury is the only area in Wiltshire that has no parish or town council. If Wiltshire County Council's plan for a single council for Wiltshire goes ahead, the government will abolish Salisbury District Council in April 2009.

A city council would not be able to take over all of the functions currently exercised by the district council.

However, the county council has said that it will be looking at what activities it might be able to devolve to parish and town councils from 2009.

These could include responsibility for such things as parks and open spaces, street cleaning and fly tipping.

Under current legislation, the creation of a new parish council has to be signed off by the Secretary of State.

However, changes going through parliament would remove this requirement, leaving the final decision to the local authority.