Your Councillors
Tunstall Parish Council – What we do…
Parish Councils are an important part of local government. Tunstall Parish Council is made up of volunteers from quite different backgrounds and experience. Together we make up a proactive team representing residents from over 700 Rural and Urban households.
We are statutory consultees on local planning which means our Borough Council, Swale, is obliged to ask our opinion on all Tunstall planning issues – everything from normal individual planning permission requests (extensions etc) to major planning issues such as the Local Plan, large developments, for example Garden Communities, or the Land Sensitivity and Land Designation Reviews.
We take these responsibilities seriously and consider everything Swale BC send to us to meet their decision/consultation time requirements. Planning forms a major part of the Parish Council’s work. Our Councillors regularly attend relevant Swale BC public meetings to assist us in making informed decisions. This has proved invaluable when making detailed responses to the Local Plan document. Our Councillors will continue to engage on this through its various stages. We have also made submissions on the Corporate Plan and Rural Sustainability Assessments.
Kent County Council maintains our Parish roads, pavements, public paths and verges. We are in regular contact with these departments to help maintain our Parish environment. Residents can help here and speed up the process on any problems they notice by reporting them directly via the KCC websites. The more reports logged, the higher the priority and the more investment in our local area by KCC.
Environmental complaints and dustbin collection issues are the responsibility of Swale BC and again, residents can help by reporting these issues directly. There is a Report It tab at the top of this page for the relevant links for both SBC and KCC on all these issues.
As well as carrying out our statutory duties, we also take the lead on initiatives and projects that improve our Parish environment and community, as we have undertaken to date in such areas as litter picking, planters and community events and awards.
We hold a formal public meeting every month and welcome residents’ input there. Meeting dates and Agendas are published on our notice boards around the Parish and here on the website.
Councillors:
Vivien Rich - Chair
John Wright
Councillors represent all residents and were elected to the following Wards:
Tunstall Rural: Cllr Vivien Rich
Tunstall Urban: Cllr John Wright
There are currently three vacancies for Tunstall Urban, anyone interested in becoming a Councillor should contact the Clerk or the Chair for details.