MORE than half of householders in Swindon – and there’s every possibility that you’re one of them – will soon have a new council delivering local services we know really matter to you.

These could include street cleaning, the removal of low-level graffiti and fly-tipping, grounds and play area maintenance, and litter bin emptying.

Those new councils are parish councils. They’re not a new idea - some areas of Swindon have had a parish council for decades, as have many areas of the country.

Sixteen million people get some services from a parish council, about 25 per cent of the population.

The change is happening after we took the decision to create four new parish councils in the borough.

We have been debating the idea of creating the new parishes for a long time, and we’ve had a very extensive three-stage consultation process to get to where we are today and make sure that the new parishes are effective and convenient, and reflect the community identities of their areas.

As a borough council, we aren’t going to be providing some local services in future.

Our budget is being pulled towards looking after the increasing number of people in our society who rely on us to look after them or keep them safe and well.

It’s better that those local services sit with parish councils, which are far better able to provide those very local services to the communities that want them.

It’s not a theory, but a fact. Existing parish councils in Swindon have proved it.

The money they charge to pay for those services, as part of their precept to council tax, is raised locally according to need, and spent locally.

Now the decision has been made, the real work starts.

There will be elections in May, when councillors will be elected to serve on the new parish councils. In the meantime, these parish councils exist in shadow form and councillors across all political parties are now starting the job of working as shadow parish councillors, largely in areas they already represent for the borough.

They will decide what the new parish councils will take on when they are formed, and how much they will charge their local communities to provide those services.

This is a huge job for both them and the council staff they will be working with, and it has to be done by mid-January in order to set the budgets.

I’d urge you to think about becoming a parish councillor.

Party politics don’t have to come into it, as most parish councillors don’t represent a political Party.

It’s an opportunity to make a real difference to where you live. You’ll find the information on our website.