RESIDENTS have been given a first look at how the borough may be divided up when parish councils are introduced from next year.

The first of eight public meetings was held at the Park South Community Centre on Monday evening as part of the council’s Community Governance Review – the last opportunity for residents to provide feedback and suggestions before the Cabinet votes on a firm proposal in August.

Despite claims from opponents of parishing that the issue has attracted great public interest, the turnout was disappointingly low with residents outnumbered by councillors and council officers.

After months of wondering where the new parish boundaries would be, the council has put forward a number of suggestions presented as illustrative maps.

While the details remain flexible, they appear to be leaning towards a division of the non-parished area into either three or four distinct parishes – to be called East, West, South and Central Swindon.

They have also suggested that changes may be made to the boundaries of existing parishes – for instance by splitting Blunsdon and St Andrews in two or by including the small parishes of Nythe and Covingham within the new, larger East Swindon parish.

The new councils will take on responsibility for street cleaning, grass cutting, litter, graffiti, minor maintenance and potentially other services such as community library provision.

Residents will pay an additional parish tax – or precept – towards these services on top of the borough council tax they already pay, that money will be used for increasingly expensive services such as caring for vulnerable adults and children instead.

The average increase per household for a Band D property looks likely to be £45, although the average amount to be paid by households in areas that are currently non-parished would actually be £57.

In the area designated as Central Swindon, the cost of providing services such as street cleaning is much higher and the increase in tax could be as much as £79.

The council is hoping to reduce that figure by asking businesses for voluntary contributions totalling £400,000 a year but so far no formal agreements have been made.

As the proposals were outlined, residents raised concerns about the speed at which the changes were being brought in.

Shadow councils made up of existing borough councillors are to be in place by the end of the year – they will then have just four months to agree contracts for services, determine budgets and set precepts prior to the start of the next financial year.

It is not yet clear when the first elections will be held to turn the shadow councils into fully democratic parish councils.

Some residents have questioned how democratic it is that by the time the elected councillors take their posts, many of the structural and contractual agreements on service provision will already have been reached.

To learn more about the parishing plan, or to find our when future meetings are being held, you can visit www.swindon.gov.uk/parishes