Transition Plan in Summary
Being the result of months of work and investigation, the Transition Plan is a carefully considered, well researched and thorough document.
You can read it for yourself by clicking here.
The following is a summary of what it means for the Town Council and the citizens of Letchworth.
Delivering The Elected Mandate
In June 2009 the Letchworth electorate overwhelmingly voted for HELP to take over the parish council and implement its declared mandate to:
“close down all Town Council activities as soon as legally and morally possible in a
sensible, caring and tidy manner leading to a non-spending Town Council.
HELP's aim is then to dissolve the Town Council”
The Transition Plan sets out the process which will result in delivering the mandate.
Closing Down All Council Activities
Although nearly all council activities have already ceased, the remainder are targeted to have finished, at the latest, by 31st December 2009.
By 31st December 2009 the target is that the transition will have been completed, and the council will then be operating in a minimum cost state, maintaining only that which is required by law.
Dissolving the Town Council
The Local Government Act (under which parish councils operate) requires that a Community Governance Review (CGR) is necessary for a parish council to be dissolved (or for the town to be de-parished).
According to the current guidance from Central Government, calling a CGR right now (for example, this year) would waste a great deal of your council tax.
The Government Guidance requires the parish council to have been in existence for 8 years before the decision be made to dissolve the council. This means the CGR should not be called until 2013.
In 2013 the electorate can democratically re-assert their continued wish for the Town Council to be abolished.
In the interim, the parish council should operate to the minimum required activity at the minimum achievable cost, and charge an annual council tax precept at, or as close to, zero as possible.
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