A quite incredible task for the largest authority and largest local plan ever attempted, North Yorkshire. Its new SCI here.
Like many of the tinier more rural parishes many don’t have parish councils but the remnant 8th century Danish tradition (in this part of England) of parish meetings (The Saxon parts of England follows the similarly dated Saxon tradition). As I read the local government act however Parish meetings would be ultra vires sending in reps on a local plan as they are not local authorities under the 1972 act (see NALC LTN 3/1). They can express a view but can only undertake statutory functions under section 9/1 of the act so could not ‘Object’ or ‘Support’ formally under like statutory authoprities like Parishes or Town councils.
What a task. Sadly many of the newer merged large authorities, like Cornwall and Dorset, have struggled to do new local plans. Cornwall for example is much criticised in lacking any kind of settlement strategy or strategy of where growth in villages go, Shropshire was put together is a rush and is now being reviewed, and Dorset abandoned the attempt to simply glue together existing plans without a strategy and took a step back. Lets hope North Yorkshire does better.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions 