Understand how your council works
Types of council
This guide relates to councils in England and has been taken from the GOV.UK website (follow this link for more information).
Duties of County Councils
These are responsible for services across the whole of a county, like:
- education
- highways and transport
- structure planning
- fire and public safety
- social care and services
- libraries
- waste management (not collection)
- trading standards
- civil emergencies
- rights of way
- registration of births, marriages and deaths
- archives
Duties of District, Borough and City councils
These cover a smaller area than county councils.
They’re usually responsible for services like:
- rubbish collection
- recycling
- parking
- Council Tax collections
- housing
- planning applications
- sports. leisure and arts
- licences and permissions
- air quality and pest control
- libraries
Duties of Parish councils
These operate at a level below district and borough councils and in some cases, unitary authorities.
They’re elected and can help on a number of local issues, like providing:
- allotments
- public clocks
- bus shelters
- community centres
- play areas and play equipment
- grants to help local organisations
- consultation on neighbourhood planning
They also have the power to issue fixed penalty fines for things like:
- litter
- graffiti
- fly posting
- dog offences
Moreinformation can be found by clicking the document below.