Local Government and Rating Act 1997

11 Petitions for new parishes

(1) If a district council or unitary county council receive a petition which complies with subsection (2) for—

(a) the constitution as a parish of an area (within their area) which is not wholly or partly within a parish, and

(b) the establishment of a parish council for any such area,

they must send the petition to the Secretary of State.

(2) The petition must—

(a) be signed by not less than—

(i) 250 local government electors for the area to which it relates, or

(ii) 10 per cent. of the local government electors for that area,

whichever is the greater number of local government electors, and

(b) define the area to which it relates, whether on a map or otherwise.

(3) But if—

(a) an earlier petition has been made to the council within the period of two years ending with the day when they received the petition,

(b) in the opinion of the council the area to which the later petition relates covers the whole or a significant part of the area to which the earlier petition related, and

(c) the council have sent the earlier petition to the Secretary of State under this section,

the council may send the later petition to the Secretary of State, but are not under a duty to do so.

(4) Where a council are under a duty, or decide, to send a petition to the Secretary of State under this section, they must send the petition, together with their views about it, to him before the end of the period of three months beginning with the day when they received it.

(5) For the purposes of this section and sections 12, 13 and 14—

(a) a petition proposing the constitution of any area as a parish is to be treated as if it also proposed the establishment of a parish council for the parish, and

(b) a petition proposing the establishment of a parish council for any area is to be treated as if it also proposed the constitution of the area as a parish.

(6) If a district council receive a petition falling within subsection (1), they must as soon as reasonably practicable notify any county council within whose area the district of the district council is situated of the proposals contained in the petition.

(7) The county council may send their views about the proposals contained in the petition to the district council or the Secretary of State.