Parish council hope for resort's historic heart

At present people living in the Castle, Central, Falsgrave Park, North Bay, Northstead, Ramshill, Stepney, Weaponness and Woodlands wards of Scarborough do not have the extra voice provided by a parish or town council.

Now consultations are to begin on whether the residents should get such a body, and if there is support for the idea whether it should be a number of small councils, or one big one.

At present the wards in the Old Town and seafront area do have a voice through a council committee, called the Central Urban Area Committee, but do not have elected parish councillors to fight their corner.

The Government is now proposing to create a new raft of parish-style bodies, called community councils as part of its Big Society vision.

The next step will be to consult thousands of residents for what will be the first review of local democracy in the town centre and adjoining area since the local government shake-up of 1974.

However, council tax-payers face an extra charge being added to their bills to support the new organisations.

Scarborough Council leader Tom Fox, who lives in the resort's Old Town, has underlined that there are real benefits to charge payers from having their own tier of local government.

He said: "The Central Urban Area Committee covers the only non-parished area of the borough, which has seemed anomalous to both members and the public at times. With increased localism the role of parishes, or community councils, is increasing in importance.

"In the current austere climate, parishes and community councils can still precept to provide vital local services to their communities which are not subject to capping in the same way that the council tax for principal councils is," Coun Fox added.