Council asked to make major change to boundary in one part of Coventry
A meeting will take place
A major boundary change which would affect people in five areas of the city is being recommended.
If the proposal wins final approval, people in the outlying areas of Allesley, Keresley, Eastern Green, Pickford Green and Brownshill Green could find themselves living in a different parish area, or in an area that doesn’t have a parish council of its own.
A meeting of the Cabinet member for Community Safety and Cohesion, Cllr John McNicholas, this week backed a recommendation to review the parish boundaries of Allesley and neighbouring Keresley.
A meeting of the full council on September 8 will set the terms of the review before it’s undertaken. The first step would be a consultation with all the neighbourhoods that are affected.
The move follows a petition calling for Allesley Parish Council boundary to be altered so that the built-up areas of Eastern Green, Pickford Green and Brownshill Green are no longer included.
The city council was also urged to look more widely at abolishing all parish councils and replacing them with neighbourhood forums that don’t require funding from the city’s council tax.
Coventry’s council tax includes additional amounts known as precepts that people must pay to cover the running costs of each parish council.
The petition organiser said new housing developments in Allesley and Keresley mean they are no longer predominantly rural communities and they therefore didn’t need parish councils.
He said: “It is important for the council to know the unfairness of some residents having to pay a parish council precept while their next door neighbours don’t, due to the current position of the parish boundary.”
Liz Read, the council’s head of electoral services, said the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 required the council to review community governance regularly, every 10 to 15 years. Coventry City Council had not carried out such a review since the act was implemented.
She said if areas were removed from Allesley Parish Council, some parts between Allesley and Keresley would no longer be covered by a parish council. A review could establish if residents were happy with this or wanted to be included in neighbouring Keresley instead.
It therefore made sense to look at Allesley and Keresley together as there could be knock-on effects of boundaries being moved, she pointed out.
Cllr McNicholas backed a preferred option to carry out a review covering both Allesley and Keresley.
Other options to review the boundaries of all three of Coventry’s parish councils – Allesley, Keresley and Finham – or look at governance across the city as a whole, to see if new parish councils or forums were needed, were not pursued.
Cllr Amor Albert (Reform, Longford) said: “It is important that the residents understand what the review means, how it may affect them and how they can take part. And also for the proposal to include neighbouring communities where it may have knock-on effects.”
He supported the call for a community governance review because there hadn’t been one anywhere in the city since 2007.
Cllr Stephen Gray (Green, Holbrooks) asked if the review would look at the areas as they are now or if it would take account of existing and future residential developments such as the ongoing Keresley Sustainable Urban Extension which includes a link road that would cut off part of the parish from car access.
Ms Read said all housing schemes would be accounted for, even where there are not yet any residents who could be consulted.
The council has to respond to the petition by setting out its first set of proposals by February 2027.
An initial consultation will be carried out looking at suggestions in the petition and the council will then put forward a recommendation for approval. A second consultation would then take place before a final decision is taken.