Tring Town Council is the local authority at parish level for the town. There are twelve Councillors, who are elected every four years. The next election will be in May 2011.
There is one full Council Meeting every month. At the moment there are four other committees which meet regularly: Planning, Finance & Policy, Allotments & Environment and Buildings & Assets. Committees are held roughly quarterly on a rolling programme (except Planning which is more frequent). In practice this means meetings of some sort are held every fortnight except during holiday periods at Christmas and Easter. All meetings of the Council and its standing Committees are open to the public.
For more details, see the list of council and committee meeting dates & minutes.
Council meetings and committees are held in the Council Chamber at the Market House, which also houses the Clerk's offices and the Council's Information Centre.
The Council has 9 members of staff, and there are also a number of volunteers who help run the Information Centre. The staff are: the Town Clerk, the Deputy Clerk, the Information Officer plus two assistants, the Clerk of the Youth Town Council, the Town Warden, the Outside Worker and the caretaker of The Market House.
The Council has two statutory responsibilities which it must carry out. They are:
The Council holds meetings fortnightly to discuss planning applications. There is an opportunity for the public to participate at these meetings, if they wish.
There are two allotments sites run by Tring Town Council: one at Duckmore Lane and one at Bulbourne.
The Council also owns several properties in the town, some of which is open space and some of which is let as commercial property. It administers these through its committees and an advantage of owning these properties is that the Council is able to control what happens at a number of significant sites.
The Council charges a levy (the precept) which is collected with the Council Tax. This precept makes up approximately 60% of its annual income. In addition it generates a significant income from its commercial property.
The Council also fosters the creation of new groups in the town and supports many existing organisations with small grants. The Council's own recent projects include:
The Council exchanges views and opinions with other local authorities and government bodies on a range of subjects - performance plans, health plans, policing, school issues - the list is endless.
You can contact your councillor, the Town Clerk or the Information Centre.
