Future of St Albans Mayoralty and creation of a new parish council would be considered in a community governance review
The future of the historic St Albans Mayoralty and the creation of a new parish council would be considered in a review of how the District is governed at a local level.
The Mayoralty dates back to 1553 with its long-standing civic and ceremonial duties protected by statute.
Since St Albans City and District Council was created in 1974, the office holder has been a District Councillor.
However, the Mayoralty’s future is now uncertain as the Council will be abolished under Government plans and merged with neighbouring councils to form a new unitary authority by May 2028.
A proposed community governance review by St Albans Council would explore ways of preserving the Mayoralty and examine whether a new parish council covering a large, unparished section of St Albans should be set up.
The review was recommended by the Strategy and Resources Committee at its meeting on Thursday 26 June and was previously supported by the City Neighbourhoods Committee.
Full Council will now decide at its July meeting whether to go ahead with the review.
Much of St Albans District has a parish or town council which organises community events and looks after assets such as open spaces, play areas and allotments.
There are nine such councils in the District: Harpenden, Harpenden Rural, Redbourn, Wheathampstead, London Colney, Sandridge, Colney Heath, St Michael and St Stephen.
However, much of the City is unparished including around 28,000 households in Batchwood, Bernards Heath, Clarence, Cunningham, Hill End, Marshalswick West, Sopwell, St Peters and Verulam wards.
The review would follow the Government’s decision to reorganise local government at District and County level and create unitary authorities in place of the current two-tier system.
In Hertfordshire, for example, this is likely to result in between two and four unitary councils, each responsible for most local government functions.
This will replace the current system of one County Council and ten District/Borough Councils with each tier having different responsibilities.
Councillor Paul De Kort, St Albans Council Leader and Chair of the Strategy and Resources Committee, said:
One of the many challenging tasks we are now faced with is the Government’s reorganisation of district and county councils.
Over the next few years much of our senior officers’ time, focus and resources has to be diverted to dealing with the many complex issues that arise from this.
The Government has said little about their plans for parish councils, but they form an important part of our local government system and should not be forgotten.
This seems the right moment to re-examine our current parish and town council arrangements in detail to see if improvements are necessary. I hope Full Council will accept the recommendation for the community governance review.
In particular, we want to find out what the options are for continuing with the St Albans Mayoralty.
We also want to see if there is an appetite for a new parish council among our residents in the unparished area. We need to look at the potential benefits to residents, the cost of creating a new council and its future funding.
Such a parish council could eventually provide a home, as it were, for the Mayor of St Albans at some point after the District Council is abolished.
St Albans Council set up the City Neighbourhoods Committee some years ago to cover the unparished area. Its members include both Councillors and local people co-opted onto the Committee from residents’ association committees in the unparished area.
The City Neighbourhoods Committee (CNC) oversees some community assets and has agreed to use its budget to help pay for the governance review, estimated to cost between £60,000 and £80,000.
Councillor Robert Donald, CNC Chair, said:
The City Neighbourhoods Committee unanimously supported the need for a community governance review and its central tasks of looking at the setting up of a new parish council for the unparished area of St Albans and preserving the Mayoralty.
Setting up a new parish council has been talked about for many years, but this proposition has never progressed as on balance it was regarded as an unnecessary tier of government given the role and location of the District Council.
Now, however, CNC members realise that St Albans City could lose its Mayor which it has enjoyed since 1553.
If we do nothing, residents might also find in 2028 that the City’s community assets, facilities and events are run by a unitary authority, covering a wide geographical area with its HQ located some distance away from St Albans.
Every other part of our District already has a parish or town council but our City does not have this democratic form of local government.
In view of this, we must urgently consider setting up a town council to run the City’s facilities and events as well as representing its residents’ needs and acting as the community’s democratic voice in future.
A community governance review will consider this and look at other governance options.
The Mayor is elected at St Albans City and District Council’s annual meeting in May and chairs Full Council meetings.
They also represent the City and the Council at various events, raise funds for charity and support local voluntary groups.
The office’s civic and ceremonial functions were established in various Royal Charters and Letters Patent.
A future option could be to create Charter Trustees, comprising Councillors from the new local authority whose wards lie within the historic boundaries of the Mayoralty.
They would then take on the role of preserving the City’s civic tradition, either on a permanent or transitional basis.
Contact for the media: John McJannet, Principal Communications Officer, 01727 819533, john.mcjannet@stalbans.gov.uk.