Community Governance Review
Following the Local Government Boundary Review of St Helens' electoral wards, we are conducting a Community Governance Review (CGR) that will review and make changes to governance arrangements for existing parish councils across St Helens Borough. Currently, St Helens has seven parish councils in the borough.
The purpose of the review is to enable us to consider what, if any, changes are needed to parish council arrangements, taking into consideration the new warding patterns while ensuring that the parish councils continue to reflect the identity and interests of local communities.
What will the review consider?
- Changes to parish areas - this includes changes to parish boundaries, the merging of two or more parishes, creating a new parish out of part of one or more existing parishes.
- Changes to electoral arrangements - this includes changing the number of parish councillors and introducing or changing parish warding arrangements.
St Helens Borough Council is also in receipt of a valid petition from 7.5% of the registered electors in Newton and Earlestown wards (now known as Newton-le-Willows East and Newton-le-Willows West) with a proposal to create a new town council for these areas.
After the publication of the terms of reference below, we completed the first-stage consultation of the review, which took place between 3 October and 30 December 2022. Draft recommendations for each review were then approved by Council in April 2023 for Newton-le-Willows and July 2023 for the existing parish councils. For information on the second consultation stages please follow the links under the latest news.
Latest news
Please follow the links below to find out more about each of the reviews and the latest updates.
| Borough review for existing parishes | Newton-le-Willows East and West Town Council proposal |
Parish Council Websites
Billinge Chapel End Parish Council
Terms of reference
As well as agreeing that a CGR should be carried out, we have set out broad terms of reference for the review. This document provides more detailed information on what happens during the review, along with its timescale. The review will be undertaken as set out in the terms of reference and relevant documents will be made available as they are published.
Read the terms of reference or download them from the foot of this page.