Parish and town powers

Some of the services that can be delivered by town and parish councils include:

• Provide allotments.
• Acquire, maintain and provide burial grounds, cemeteries and crematoria.
• Maintain monuments and memorials and contribute towards the expenses of cemeteries.
• Provide and maintain bus shelters.
• Make laws for public regulation which apply in a certain area, known as byelaws. These byelaws could cover pleasure grounds, cycle parks, open spaces and burial grounds.
• Enclose, regulate and manage commons (land that people have traditional rights to use in certain ways) and provide common pasture.
• Provide and equip buildings for use by athletic, social or educational clubs.
• Spend money on various crime-prevention measures.
• Provide entertainment and support for the arts.
• Repair and maintain public footpaths and bridleways.
• Provide lighting for roads and public places.
• Provide litter bins, parking places for vehicles, bicycles and motor-cycles, roadside seats and shelters, bus shelters, traffic signs and other notices.
• Plant trees and maintain roadside verges.
• Provide litter bins.
• Provide mortuaries and post-mortem rooms.
• Deal with problems such as blocked ditches, ponds, pools and gutters where stagnant water can collect.
• Acquire and maintain land to be used as open space.
• Provide public toilets.
• Acquire land for and provide recreation grounds, public walks and pleasure grounds, and manage and control them.
• Provide gyms, playing fields, holiday camps and boating pools.
• Be told about planning applications in the parish and submit comments on them to the district or borough council.
• Make financial contributions to organisations encouraging tourism.
• Help pay for traffic-calming schemes.
• Spend money on community transport schemes.