Local Government Act 1972

11 Orders for grouping parishes, dissolving groups and separating parishes from groups. E

(1)The parish meeting of a parish may apply to the district council for an order grouping the parish with some neighbouring parish or parishes in the same district under a common parish council or by adding the parish to an existing group of such parishes under such a council, and the district council may thereupon make an order accordingly, but subject to subsection (2) below.

(2)Parishes shall not be grouped without the consent of the parish meeting of each of the parishes.

(3)A grouping order shall make the necessary provision—

(a)for the name of the group;

(b)for the election in accordance with this Act and Part I of the [F1Representation of the People Act 1983] of separate representatives on the parish council for each parish or for the wards of any parish or, in the case of an order which adds a parish to the group, for that parish or for the wards of that parish;

(c)for the application to the parishes included in the group of all or any of the provisions of section 37 of the M1Charities Act 1960 (parochial charities) and of any of the provisions of this Act with respect to the custody of parish documents, so as to preserve the separate rights of each parish;

(d)for the dissolution of the separate parish council of any parish included in the group,

and the order may provide for the consent of the parish meeting of a parish being required to any particular act of the parish council, and for any necessary adaptations of this Act to the group of parishes or to the parish meetings of the parishes in the group.

(4)The district council may on the application of the council of a group of parishes or of the parish meeting of any parish included in a group of parishes make an order dissolving the group or separating one or more of those parishes from the group, and an order so made shall make such provision as appears to the district council to be necessary for the election of a parish council for any of the parishes in the group, where it is dissolved, and for any of the parishes separated from the group, where it is not.

(5)Parishes grouped under a common parish council before 1st April 1974 and situated in different districts on and after that date shall, notwithstanding that they are so situated, continue to be grouped under that council—

(a)unless an order is made under section 9 or subsection (4) above or Part IV below dissolving the group; or

(b)except so far as such an order separates one or more of the parishes from the group;

and any order under that section or subsection in relation to any parishes so situated shall be made by the district councils concerned acting jointly.