... Parish Council
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The Parish Council

Your Parish Councillors

Philip Ayles

Chairman
Email: philip.ayles
@castlethorpe-pc.gov.uk
Phone: 07595 715374

Russell Forgham

Vice-Chairman
Email: russell.forgham
@castlethorpe-pc.gov.uk
Phone: 07905 341601

Steve Bradbury

Councillor
Email: steve.bradbury
@castlethorpe-pc.gov.uk
Phone: 07565 710183

David Hinds

Councillor
Email: david.hinds
@castlethorpe-pc.gov.uk
Phone: 01908 510406

Ian Markham

Councillor
Phone: 01908 511169

Darren Merritt

Councillor
Email: darren.merritt
@castlethorpe-pc.gov.uk
Phone: 01908 601005

Kay Sawbridge

Councillor
Email: kay.sawbridge
@castlethorpe-pc.gov.uk
Phone: 01908 510922

Jacquie Ladyman

Clerk to the Parish Council
Email: clerk
@castlethorpe-pc.gov.uk
Phone: 07707 836973

Our MKC Ward Councillors

Alison Andrew

Email: alison.andrew
@milton-keynes.gov.uk
Phone: 07585 334988 

Liam Andrews

Email: liam.andrews
@milton-keynes.gov.uk
Phone: 07538 464639

Chris Wardle

Email: chris.wardle
@milton-keynes.gov.uk
Phone: 07709 002093  

Our MP

 

Chris Curtis

Parish Councillor Appointments
& Declarations of Interest

At its Annual General Meeting on 15 May 2023, the Parish Council elected Councillor Philip Ayles to be its Chair and Councillor Russell Forgham to be its Vice-Chair. The Council has also made appointments to its Committees, for individual councillor 

responsibilities and to represent the Council at various external meetings. All appointments will remain in force until the next Annual General Meeting. The statutory Declarations of Councillors’ Interests are available on the MKCC website.

Committees and Responsibilities

  • FINANCE COMMITTEE: Councillors Ayles, Bradbury, Forgham, Merritt and Sawbridge
  • SPORTS GROUND COMMITTEE: Councillors Bradbury, Forgham, Ayles, Markham and Sawbridge plus representatives from the cricket and football clubs
  • VILLAGE HALL: Councillors Forgham, Hinds and Bradbury, plus three co-opted voting members, being representatives of the Pre-School, the Youth Club and Short Mat Bowls. The other user groups are represented by non-voting members of the committee.
  • HIGHWAYS AND STREETLIGHTS: Councillors Ayles, Markham and Merritt
  • FOOTPATHS AND PLAY AREAS: Councillors Hinds, Bradbury and Markham
  • PUBLIC TRANSPORT: Councillors Ayles and Forgham 
  • NEIGHBOURHOOD AND PARISH PLANS: Councillors Ayles, Forgham, Hinds and Bradbury
  • COMMUNICATIONS AND WEBSITE: Councillors Ayles, Forgham and Bradbury
  • DOG FOULING: Councillor Hinds
  • FLOWER FESTIVAL: Councillor Hinds

    The following Councillors were elected to represent the
    Parish Council at the following external meetings. 
  • Parishes’ Forum: Councillor Ayles 
  • Rural West Neighbourhood Action Group: Councillors Ayles, Hinds and Bradbury
  • Newport Pagnell North and Hanslope Local Area Forum: Councillors Ayles, Forgham and Bradbury 
  • Milton Keynes Association of Local Councils (MKALC): Councillors Ayles and one other, by availability 
  • Sustainable Transport & Road Safety Forum (STARS): Councillors Ayles and Bradbury
  • Milton Keynes Bus Users Group: Councillor Forgham

What does the Parish Council do?

Parish Councils are the first tier of local government in England. Although there are often two higher tiers, District or Borough Councils and County Councils, Milton Keynes Council is a ‘unitary authority’ so there is only one higher tier. However, the Parish Council is an independent body in law and Castlethorpe Parish Council does not ‘report to’ Milton Keynes.
In practice, most of our services are provided by Milton Keynes Council. An important role of the Parish Council is to ensure that Milton Keynes delivers a satisfactory level of service to the village.  
The Parish Council is not a ‘Planning Authority’. It cannot approve or reject planning applications. It is, however, a ‘statutory consultee’ which means that it has to be notified of all applications within the parish and the planning authority – Milton Keynes – has to take note of any parish council view.
If the parish council objects, then the application cannot be determined by a Milton Keynes Planning Officer but has to go to the Planning Committee of Milton Keynes Councillors.  
The Parish raises a ‘precept’ or a levy on the houses within Castlethorpe. This is collected by Milton Keynes with the rates. The precept is about £33,000 a year or £70 per dwelling on average.  
This money is used to provide a number of services within the village but mostly looking after the Village Hall and the Sports Ground. There are occasionally other projects such as traffic calming or additional car parking and pathways at the sports ground to which the Parish Council contributes usually by matching Parish Partnership Grants given to the parish by Milton Keynes Council. The Parish Council may also receive ‘planning obligation’ payments from new developments.  

Parish Councillors are elected for four years - the last term started in May 2023 - unless a councillor steps down.
The councillors are not paid. However, they do have a part-time Clerk and this is a paid position. Unfortunately, there is a lot of bureaucracy from the formality of calling meetings and issuing minutes, to actioning the decisions of the Parish Council and keeping a proper account of the public money that is spent.  
The Parish Council normally meets on the first Monday of each month at 7.30pm at the Village Hall. There are sometimes extraordinary meetings, usually to consider an urgent planning application, or meetings of the Finance Committee. 
All these meetings are open to the public and the Notice of the Meeting has to be posted, by law, on the village Notice Board three clear days before each meeting. All meetings are livestreamed on the Parish Council's YouTube channel and can be seen below.
The practice of Castlethorpe Parish Council is to hold an Open Forum for 15 minutes before each Council Meeting where residents can ask questions. 
Members of the public are not allowed to speak at the meeting itself by law unless the Chairman decides to suspend the meeting to allow someone to speak.  
Each year, there is an Annual Parish Meeting. Although this is chaired by the Chairman of the Parish Council if he is present, it is not a council meeting and residents can put forward resolutions by lodging them with the Clerk with due notice. 
The resolutions are not normally binding on the Council but clearly good note would be taken. In practice, the Annual Parish Meeting is used to give the various village organisations an opportunity to give an oral report to the village.

Parish Council meetings

The Parish Council's monthly meetings are livestreamed on  the Parish CouncilYouTube channel.
You can watch previous meetings and other events by clicking on the relevant clip below.

Chair's Annual Report to the village

The Chair of the Parish Council, Philip Ayles, issued his Annual Report to the village at the Annual Parish Meeting on Monday 15 April, 2024, which you can read by clicking here.

Public Papers

The following Agendas and MInutes, Public Papers, Standing Orders
and Parish Council Policies are available to download in PDF form:

Contact the Parish Council

Fill in this form or send an email to contact@castlethorpe-pc.gov.uk. You can also phone us on  07707 836973.
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