
Croston Parish Council

The Council
Croston Parish Council meets on the 2nd Wednesday of every month (except August) at 7.30pm in the Rectory Room at Croston Old School.
Meetings are held in public and publicised to residents. The Parish Council has powers to exclude press and public from meetings for certain private matters.
The Council is able to carry out functions under powers in many different statutory acts. It has the power to precept and spend an amount on items it sees as a benefit to the area or inhabitants, sometimes referred to as the free resource. It can consider matters on which it has powers to act for the benefit and within the interests of its electorate but has a responsibility for sound financial management.

Councillors
The whole Council is subject to an election every 4 years approx (the last election being May 2019).
The Council is a body and is distinct from its members (either as individuals or collectively) and its acts, assets and liabilities are its own and not those of its members. Councillors are volunteers and as such receive no payment.
Contact details for the current members of the Parish Council can be viewed by clicking the button below

Council Funding
The Parish Council obtains its funding from what is known as the precept. This comes from the local element of residents council tax collected by the Borough Council (approx £ for a band D property 2023/24).
Croston covers an area of 2,449 acres and the village has 2,339 (2019) electors and population of 2,917 (2011 Census figure).
Financial regulations govern the conduct of financial management by the council.
Precept figure for 2023-24 is £ (does not include the £1,440 Chorley Council Top up grant)

Freedom of Information Act
Croston Parish Council is a public authority listed in Part II of Schedule 1 of this Act and is subject to Section 19 (adoption and maintenance of a publication scheme approved by the Information Commissioner). Croston Parish Council adopted this scheme in 2004 and the revised version, adopted on 10 December 2008, containing details of available information, can be viewed by clicking the the button below.

Meetings
Councillors give their time freely to attend meetings and the Parish Council depends on its members being able to make time to attend the meetings. The Local Government Act 1972 specifies the number of consecutive meetings a Councillor may miss before automatically ceasing to be a member of the Council.
Click this button to see the Agenda for the next Meeting:
Copies of the minutes of previous meetings can be seen here:
Please note - minutes cannot be published until they have been agreed at the following months meeting.

Clerk to the Council
The business of the Council is managed by the Clerk (an employee of the Council). The Clerk is not a Councillor and does not make decisions for the Council but does advise of developments, law, requirements etc. The Clerk manages the Council business such as the financial matters, employee supervision, minutes, meeting arrangements, paperwork, agendas, noticeboards, continuous projects, council assets, emergency repairs etc.
Contact details for the Clerk can be found by clicking the button below

Responsibilities
The Parish Council is responsible for the amenities it provides such as its own seats, noticeboards, open spaces etc. Responsibility for other items such as highways, footpaths, and street lighting lies with the County Council, and refuse and recycling collection, street cleansing, litter bins etc lies with the Borough Council.
The Parish Council has input into matters which effect the village such as planning applications, which are controlled by Chorley Borough Council but which are copied to the Parish for comment/recommendation/suggestion/objection etc.
The Parish Council is non-political. It is solely involved in issues, items and developments for the village's benefit and assistance.

Lengthsman
The Parish Council employs a lengthsman to pick up litter on pavements and land owned by the council within the village. He works all year round concentrating on the the main roads through the centre of the village and the Recreation Park. When time permits he will also visits the estates
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Local Planning
Local Planning - Chorley Borough Council is the planning authority for this area and it makes the decisions on planning applications.
The Parish Council is consulted on planning applications in the village. It receives copies of plans and drawings for the larger applications and can request the same for the smaller applications.
The consultation period for a Parish Council is 21 days from the applications’ publication date. When the weekly list is received the Clerk extracts the relevant local applications and communicates these to Councillors.
Chorley Council weekly planning lists can seen or printed from their website or you can inspect plans at the Council Offices, telephone 01257 515151.
Click on ‘Planning Online’ and then ‘Weekly Planning Lists’
