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02 October 2013
Issue: 7578 / Categories: Features
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Book review: Local Councils Explained

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"A particular strength of this publication is that it is 'a book for all seasons'"

Author: Meera Tharmarajah
Publisher: National Association of Local Councils (NALC)
ISBN: 9780950243696
Price: £49.99+P&P for members of NALC & £59.99+P&P for non-members.

Local councils (often known in England as parish, town or village councils and in Wales as community councils) can be mysterious places, even to many experienced local government lawyers. 

Grassroots

But these councils are important democratic structures at grassroots level. As local government minister, Don Foster, said last month as he announced “new measures to bring parish powers back to the towns and cities of England”: “Parish councils are a fundamental part of our local democracy, giving the people who live within a community direct powers to run their local services.”

But where do you go if you’ve got a professional need to get under the constitutional and legal skins of these councils? For regrettably, most local government textbooks deal with the bigger local authority beasts ie principal councils (counties, districts, London Boroughs and county borough

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