Clause 14 (Hansard, 17 July 1972)

§ Mr. Speed
I beg to move Amendment No. 883, in page 8, line 20, leave out 'representative body if they' and insert: 'parish council in the case of a parish having a separate parish council or the parish trustees in any other case, if that council or those trustees'.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this Amendment it will be convenient for the House to discuss Government Amendments Nos. 884, 885, 886, 887, 888, 889, 890, 891, 892, 893, 1018, 894, 1019, 906, and 1045.

§ Mr. Speed
These Amendments are very much inter-related. Basically, there are some 3,000-odd small parishes which have no parish council and which need a formal body to hold property and other moneys in trust for the parish. Under the 1933 Act, this function is performed by a representative body consisting of the parish meeting chairman and the persons representing the parish on the district council, and there is special provision where these two gentlemen happen to be the same person.
123 This has been unsatisfactory in two respects: the title of the body is misleading and the body itself seems to have had an uncertain existence. There have been cases where a parish council has been set up and has discovered years later the existence of parish property of which no one has been aware.
The proposals in the Amendments therefore change the composition of the body to be the chairman of the parish meeting—to provide a local representative element—and the "proper officer" appointed by the district council, to provide continuity in the professional element. To mirror this change in composition, the title of the new body established is changed to the more appropriate one of "parish trustees". The Amendment is acceptable to the local authority associations and has the support of the National Association of Parish Councils. This is a simple and straightforward tidying-up of what has been a difficult and anomalous position.