Town and Parish Councils in the Scarborough Borough are being invited to take on extra powers.
As part of the local government reorganisation taking place next April the councils are being invited to apply to take over the running of some local services.
Councillor Greg White says initially six parishes across North Yorkshire will take part in a pilot project with any devolution of services being carefully assessed.
North Yorkshire County Council is encouraging the lower tier local authorities to submit expressions of interest about “reasonable steps beyond what they already do”, such as managing car parks, markets or community buildings.
Parts of Scarborough don't currently have a parish council, so won't be able to take part in the pilot, but councillor Greg White says that if a new town council is created in Scarborough, it will be able to take part in future rounds.
Initially six parish and town councils will be selected for a pilot scheme, in which they will be given the existing budget for running the service.
The move comes several years after the council handed over the management of the vast majority of its libraries to community groups, amid an outcry, as it strived to cut costs. Although there are some continuing concerns at some libraries, the move has since widely been heralded as a success.
However, the meeting heard double devolution was not aimed at saving money or “off-loading services”.
The authority’s finance boss, Councillor Gareth Dadd, said:
“When local communities own something, a service or space, they are far better placed to look after that service or space than a larger authority.
“We all know, don’t we, that local town and parish councils can sometimes run things more efficiently than larger organisations as a one-off. I would be happy for those savings to be passed to the local community.”
The council had faced criticism from town and parish councils over the proposal in the belief that it was an exercise in offloading duties that parishes had no desire to take on.
Councillor Michael Harrison, executive member for health and adult services, says that is not the case:
“We are not prescribing a list of things that we want people to consider. We want them to come to us with things that they want to do. If they don’t want to do anything there’s no pressure on them to do so.”
Parish and Town councils will have until the end of March next year to apply yo be part of the initial pilot project.
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