Each week, our mayor writes a brief diary about his previous week. This is available for you to view here in PDF format
Diary Notes (4.5Kb)
Council Responsibilities
The council has little power but a reasonable amount of influence. A prime example
of this is planning applications. The planning authority is Harrogate Borough
Council, but they give details of every planning application within the Town to
the Town Council for review and will take into account the councillors’ comments
when coming to a decision.
Similarly North Yorkshire County Council is the highway authority, but it consults
the Town council when it’s considering any road scheme, for example the placing
of double yellow lines, or road safety schemes.
The Town council is directly responsible for the following:
- Christmas Lights (jointly and led by the Chamber of Trade). Click here to view photographs of the lights.
- Commenting on all planning applications
- Boroughbridge and Aldborough Cemeteries
- Various parcels of land throughout the town - recreation are on New Row; picnic area adjacent to Back Lane Car Park; part of Mill Lane car park and riverbank; Aldborough Village Green; Buttermarket and Hall Square; Community Office and Visitor Information Centre; various seats and benches
- The War memorial
- The Fountain in St. James Square
Town and Parish councils are the first tier of government in England. They are
no longer anything to do with the church, although they were in times past. A
parish council is responsible for a parish, a small area normally enclosing one
community. If the community is sufficiently large the council may be called a
town council (which is the case for Boroughbridge which embraces the villages
of Aldborough and Minskip) rather than a parish council but its responsibilities
and powers are identical.
The next tier above parish councils is the Borough council (in our case Harrogate)
which covers a much wider area, and above that comes the county council (in our
case North Yorkshire).
Town and Parish Councils can get money to operate from its residents in the form
of a “precept”, this is added to the money required by the county council, the
police authority and the borough council and is then collected by the borough
council in the council tax (previously called the community charge or “poll tax”
and, before that, the rates). The Town Council operates within the guidelines
of its own ‘standing orders’. Click to view a copy of the standing orders.
All Town Councillors are unpaid and give their time freely for the benefit of
the community.
All residents of the town are to be encouraged to consider serving a term as
a Town Councillor, please call at the Council offices or contact any member of
the Council or one of the Town clerks for more details.
Boroughbridge Town Council is a paid up member of the following organisations:
- York and North Yorkshire Playing Fields Association
- Yorkshire Tourist Board
- Harrogate District Sports Council
- The Association of Burial Authorities
- Society of Local Council Clerks
- Action for Market Towns
- Yorkshire Rural Community Council
- Harrogate and District Rural Transport Forum
- Boroughbridge and District Community Care
- Yorkshire Local Councils Association
The Borough council for the region is Harrogate Borough Council
HBC are responsible for delivering local public services, supporting businesses
and helping visitors. The Council is responsible for ensuring that the Harrogate borough
is a clean, safe and pleasant place to live, work and visit.
Harrogate Borough Council are based at:
Crescent Gardens, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG1 2SG, Telephone: 01423 500600
The County Council is North Yorkshire County Council
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NYCC consists of 74 elected Councillors, each representing local residents in
the electoral division for which they were elected. They are committed to providing
community leadership and a whole range of key services such as education and learning,
local libraries and archives, roads and transport, environmental services, and
consumer and business services and advice. They also work closely with the seven
local Borough Councils, who manage services such as council tax collection, domestic
refuse and housing, with the many parish and Town councils in the County, and
with partner organisations such as Police and Fire Authorities, Health Trusts
and voluntary organisations.
North Yorkshire County Council are based at:
County Hall, Northallerton, North Yorkshire, DL7 8AD Telephone: 01609 780780 Fax:
01609 778199