Welcome to the official website of Grewelthorpe Parish Council

Here you will find information about the Council’s work, your elected councillors, how the Council is organised, how it is funded, and the services it provides within the parish.

If you wish to contact the Council regarding any matter within the parish, please use the Contact page. Your message will be directed to the Clerk.

We hope you find this website helpful. If you have suggestions for improvement, we welcome your feedback.

About the Parish

Grewelthorpe Civil Parish lies within the North Yorkshire Council unitary authority. The village is located approximately three miles (5 km) south of Masham and six miles (10 km) north of Ripon, within the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The Parish Council was established in 1894 and celebrated its centenary in 1994.

The Role of the Parish Council

The responsibilities placed on Parish Councils have grown significantly in recent years due to changes in national legislation such as the Localism Act 2011 and the Audit and Accountability Act 2014, along with other recent and emerging legislation, have increased the duties and expectations placed on local councils. For residents, this means a more accessible and local point of contact for information, support, and raising concerns.

Grewelthorpe Parish Council is an elected body of five councillors, all of whom live or work in the village. The Council’s primary function is to ensure the parish is run efficiently and economically, funded through a proportion of the annual Council Tax known as the precept.

What the Parish Council Does

The Council is an elected body with five seats filled by residents who either live or work in the village. Their primary function is to ensure that the Parish is efficiently and economically run using a proportion of the annual Council Tax income, known as “the precept”.

The Parish Council has a broad range of responsibilities some of which can be summarized below:

• Provision of Playgrounds and Play Equipment,
• Engaging with other local Parish Councils on matters that affect us all,
• Working with North Yorkshire Council on traffic matters,
• Managing a number of public open spaces,
• Making representations to other local and national bodies, on issues that affect the local community,
• Statutory consultations on planning issues, working to influence Planning Authority decisions, based on Councillor's local knowledge.

Whilst there are limited powers to make decisions, Parish Councils do have the ability to negotiate with, and the power to influence, those other organisations, particularly North Yorkshire Council, that do make the final decisions.