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 mostly in the areas of highway maintenance (potholes and streetlights), waste collection, public transport and planning.

The Parish Council is not a ‘Planning Authority’. It cannot approve or reject planning applications but 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 City Council with the rates. The precept is about £40,000 or £80 per average dwelling (Band D) a year. This money is used to provide a number of services within the village but mostly looking after the Village Hall, the Sports Ground and the buildings on it and keeping the weeds and shrubbery along the village footpaths in good order.

The Parish Council is also the landlord for the village shop and The Pavilion though it leases both to Community Interest Companies which are responsible for the premises and sublease them to tenants, Udi and Dina and Luke and Elaine respectively.

There are occasionally other projects such as traffic calming, heritage streetlights or additional car parking marking which the Parish Council funds, if possible, by obtaining matching Community Infrastructure Fund grants from MKCC or by applying for other grants. The Parish Council may also receive ‘planning obligation’ payments from new developments.