About Wittering Parish Council
The Wittering Parish Council comprises nine voluntary Councillors who represent a resident population of around 2,000 and they are supported by Representatives of the Royal Air Force. Residents are welcome to attend the Council meetings at which they can ask questions and contribute to the public participation section of the Parish Council meeting.
What does Wittering Parish Council do?
The Parish Council represents the people of Wittering at the lowest level of government. Parliament has given many powers to Parish Councils. These powers relate to issues such as grants, planning, provision of recreation facilities, community centres and public buildings, crime prevention, community transport, allotments, footpaths, litter, open spaces and traffic calming.
How does it do this?
The Parish Council appoints a Clerk who is responsible for the implementation of the Councils policy decisions, a wide range of administrative tasks and advising the Council on matters of law and procedure.
How are Parish Councils Funded?
The major income for most Parish Councils is a precept to be raised by the principle local authority as part of the Council tax. This is paid by residents of the Parish. Parish Councils may also receive other income such as grants and fees for letting buildings.
What do Parish Councillors do?
As a minimum they attend most of the Council meetings. A growing number of papers and reports are generated by various bodies that require reading and responding to as they may contain information or plans that may be positive or detrimental to the future best interests of the village and surrounding areas. Occasionally Councillors will be approached by villagers asking for help with their problems.
Who can become a Councillor?
Councillors must be 18 or over, a British Commonwealth or EU Member State citizen and to be a Parish Councillor for Wittering they must:
• be a local government elector in the Parish, or
• have owned or rented land in the Parish for the previous 12 months, or
• have lived or worked within 3 miles of the Parish for the previous 12 months, or
• have worked in the parish for the previous 12 months.
Interested in becoming a Councillor?
A full Council is elected every four years. The next elections will be held in April 2022. Occasionally a Councillor will resign mid-term and a casual vacancy arises which is often filled by co-option. If you are interested then come to a Council meeting and discover first-hand what the Parish Council is doing.
Data Protection Statement
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) builds on the existing data protection laws to help ensure that organisations use personal data in a responsible and transparent way. The GDPR also gives individuals greater control over how their personal data is used.
The Wittering Parish Council takes its obligations under the data protection laws very seriously and keep their policies and procedures under continuous review to ensure that they comply with all regulations.
Wittering Parish Council holds information about the Wittering Parish Councillors that is used to communicate with them regarding the running and administration of the Wittering Parish Council and to record and manage their involvement with the Wittering Parish Council.
The following statement describes how your data will be used for the purposes of running the Wittering Parish Council:
• We will use your data to record your involvement with the Wittering Parish Council.
• We will keep your contact details on a central database to allow other Wittering Parish Councillors to contact you and for you to contact them.
The use of your personal data in this way is necessary to achieve the legitimate interests of the Wittering Parish Council to ensure an efficient operation. The Wittering Parish Council will never divulge or sell your data to any third party to use for its own purposes.