S137 Providing a Million Reasons to have a Windsor Town Council & a Maidenhead Town Council

Yesterday I took the opportunity to explain how Section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972 could possibly be used to help RBWM set up Windsor & Maidenhead Town Councils given the tight financial situation we find ourselves in.

Currently RBWM has 15 Parish and Town councils representing all areas except

Windsor town
Maidenhead town

The following areas all have the lowest tier of local government representation:

Bisham
Bray
Cookham
Cox Green
Datchet
Eton Town
Horton
Hurley
Old Windsor
Shottesbrooke
Sunningdale
Sunninghill and Ascot
Waltham St Lawrence
White Waltham
Wraysbury

What parish and town councils CAN do…

Parish and town councils can run numerous services, depending on the council size. These include delivering services such as allotments, car parks, celebrations and festivals, community buses, community and leisure centres, litter bins, parks and open spaces, public toilets and street lights. Improving the quality of life such as community hubs, neighbourhood plans, funding community projects and services, suitable housing, setting up dementia-friendly groups, solar panels, tackling loneliness and youth projects, and giving the community a voice on planning matters with principal authorities and developers, local police and health services, and the government.

They can take on an awful lot, or…

What parish and town councils MUST do…

Hold 4 meetings a year
Account for public money they spend
Act as a statutory consultee
Provide allotments if there is a demand
- Windsor Town could set up new agreements with allotment holders and make use of a system like Scribe to manage the communications and invoicing.
- Alternatively, Section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972 (Arrangements for Discharge of Functions) enables Windsor Town Council to delegate the authority of running the service to RBWM.
- And then The Local Authorities (Goods and Services) Act 1970 enables RBWM to charge a fee for managing the operations.
- If RBWM are being too greedy with service fees then Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 (Section 29) enables the allotment sites to be put under local management by an Allotment Association.

The key being, they just have to hold a few meetings and be very transparent with any public money they spend.

So the parish and town councils could choose to focus on helping the local community more directly by ensuring any precept they can legally raise gets spent on much needed services for local people within the parish or town.

Community Grant Funding at RBWM

In 2019 it was in the order of £300,000

By 2022 this had dropped to £50,000

And in 2026-2027 this is…

Section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972

ONLY parish and town councils can make use of this primary legislation

Section 137 of the Local Government Act 1972 empowers local councils (such as parish and town councils) to spend a limited amount of money on community activities that directly benefit their local area and inhabitants, provided there is no other specific legal power to do so.