Frampton Cotterell Parish Council

Frampton Cotterell Parish Council represents the interests of our parishioners to South Gloucestershire Council, and is responsible for managing and maintaining a range of services and facilities for the benefit of the local community.

Frampton Cotterell Parish Council Office is located at the Brockeridge Centre, Woodend Road, Frampton Cotterell, BS36 2LQ.

Our office is open from 9am – 2pm, Monday to Friday. We can be contacted via telephone on 01454 864442 and via email at office@framptoncotterell-pc.gov.uk. You can also follow us on Facebook!

What We Do & Our Ethos

PDF copies of this What We Do poster and Our Ethos poster are available.

What are Parish Councils?

Parish Councils are the tier of local government closest to the community. Parish Councils work to represent their local community, deliver services to meet local needs, and to improve community well being and quality of life for parishioners.

Work We Do

Community Grants
Every year the Parish Council gives small grants to non profit-making local community groups and charities.

Community Events
We organise various community events, from the annual Carols Around The Tree, Christmas Lights, & Scarecrow Trail, to our weekly Coffee & Cake mornings, Warm Spaces, & more!

Wildlife & Biodiversity
Our Climate & Nature Committee aims to protect and enhance nature and our environment. We manage and advise on local land for the benefit of nature, organise monthly volunteer projects, arrange and run local nature events such as Bioblitz, and work together with local nature and environmental groups.

Water Fountains
As part of our Refill Frampton Cotterell scheme, we have installed 3 free to use water refill stations around the village at The Park, Centenary Field and the Brockeridge Centre in a bid to reduce plastic waste.

General Maintenance
We manage litter bins, land maintenance (e.g. grass & hedge cutting etc.), and maintenance of Parish Council owned buildings.

Planning – Giving You A Voice!
We act as a representative of the parish on issues of planning. We work to let our parishioners know about local planning proposals and listen to their opinions. We can then work to represent community interests to South Gloucestershire District Council.

Land & Buildings We Own, Manage, or Maintain

Frampton Cotterell Parish Council Ethos

The guiding ethos of Frampton Cotterell Parish Council is:

To improve the overall quality of life for all residents in the parish through the promotion of social, environmental, and community values.
To work together with members of the community regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation, and to make decisions fairly and inclusively with the resources available.
To promote a proactive community by encouraging the involvement, engagement, and empowerment of individual in addressing local needs.
To invest in young people by providing support from youth service partners, and offering a safe space to have fun, learn new skills, and have a voice in the community.
To create an open dialogue for proposed projects and seek the input of councillors, employees, and the community from the ideas stage through to implementation and completion.
To be transparent with spending and resources, aiming to deliver cost effective projects and services which benefit local residents.

Getting involved

Did you know you can contact us to suggest improvements to the parish? Contact us with your ideas!

You can also attend any public Parish Council or Committee meetings to voice your concerns, raise your ideas, or to keep up-to-date with current affairs. Take a look at our Committees Page to learn more about each committee and working group.

You can apply for grants from your Parish Council. We have a dedicated grants page for the community.

We currently have a few vacancies for Parish Councillors. If you are keen to make a change in the community and get involved with some exciting projects, get in touch for an application form. You do not need any previous experience to become a councillor and we have councillors from a variety of backgrounds.

If you would like to get involved without becoming a Councillor, we welcome your input! You can volunteer on various community projects, such as Refill Frampton Cotterell and Climate and Nature projects, and for supporting local events and activities. Get in touch!

How are Parish Councils funded?

Parish councils are funded principally by an annual precept. Income and expenditure for the next financial year are calculated in the form of estimates. The net amount (the precept) is added to council tax, collected by the district council and paid to parishes in two six-monthly instalments. Parish councils can apply for other funding such as grant and funding awards, but they do not receive funds direct from central government, as principal authorities do.

Parish Council Wards

The parish is divided into three wards, Central, East and West. Each ward elects 5 Councillors to serve on the Parish Council for a period of four years. Elections are held at the same time as the elections to South Gloucestershire District Council in May 2015, 2019 etc. If a vacancy arises during the term of a Council, e.g. due to a resignation, then a replacement will be sought either by election if called for by parishioners or by co-option by existing Council members.

Parish Map

We have a map of the parish boundaries, cycle routes, byways, footpaths and bridle paths. You can use this to aid in your exploration of the parish, as well as visiting our local walks & trails page.

Roles and Responsibilities of Councillors and the Clerk

The Clerk

The Clerk is employed by the Council to provide administrative support for the Council’s activities. Any other staff, although employed by the Council, answer to the Clerk who is their manager and is responsible for their performance. The Clerk’s primary responsibility is to advise the Council on whether its decisions are lawful and to recommend ways in which decisions can be implemented. To help with this, the Clerk can be asked to research topics of concern to the Council and provide unbiased information to help the Council to make appropriate choices. The Clerk has a wide range of other responsibilities which are set out in his/her job description. The Clerk must recognise that the Council is responsible for all decisions and that he/she takes instructions from the Council as a body. The Clerk is not answerable to any individual Councillor – not even the Chairman. The Council must be confident that the Clerk is, at all times, independent, objective and professional. The Clerk is also the Proper Officer which is a title used in statute.

Parish Councillors

Parish Councillors are elected by the electors of the Parish (section 16 (2) of the Local Government Act 1972) every four years. A Councillor may also be returned by by-election, co-option, or appointment by the district council or by return after a successful election petition. All Councillors are required to complete a declaration of Acceptance of Office and to provide a written undertaking that they accept the Council’s Code of Conduct. Individual Councillors work together to serve the community and to help the Council to make decisions on behalf of the local community.

Councillors contribute to the work of the Council by suggesting ideas, engaging in constructive debate and by responding to the needs and views of the community representing their constituents. Councillors comment on proposals to ensure the best outcome and vote to enable the Council to make decisions. Councillors must accept the decisions of the Council as a whole even if they do not agree with it. In such circumstances a Councillor may ask for a vote against a Resolution to be recorded. Councillors are required to behave in an ethical way and to declare an interest when necessary.

Code of Conduct. Under the Localism Act 2011, and the relevant authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests -DPI) Regulation 2012, all Councillors are required to register DPI. Councillors’ DPI are registered with South Gloucestershire Council.

The Chair

The council Chair is elected by the members of the Council at the Annual Council Meeting and serves for twelve months (Section 15 (1) of the Local Government act 1972). The Chair’s main role is to run Council meetings. S/he can suggest the content and design of the agenda, but as legal signatory, the Clerk has the final say.

The Chair is responsible for ensuring that effective and lawful decisions are taken at meetings of the Council and, assisted by the Clerk, guides activities by managing the meetings of the Council. The Chair is responsible for involving all Councillors at meetings and ensuring that Councillors keep to the point. The Chair summarises the debate and facilitates the making of clear Resolutions and is responsible for keeping discussions moving so that the meeting is not too long.

The Chair has a casting vote. Their first vote is a personal vote as a member of the Council. If there is a tied vote, the Chair can have a second, casting vote. The Chair will often be the public face of the Council and will represent the Council at official events. S/he may be asked to speak on behalf of the Council and, in such circumstances, should only expresses the agreed views of the Council and not his/her personal views. The Chair cannot legally make a decision on behalf of the Council.

The Council

The Local Government Act of 1894 created civil parish councils effectively excluding the church from local government. Local government was further reformed in 1974 following the Local Government Act of 1972 with the result that parish councils had more freedom to operate without consents from central government.

A parish council is a body corporate (section 14 (3) of the Local Government Act 1972), which means that it is an “it” in law and that the decisions it takes are the responsibility of the Council as a whole. The Council represents and serves the whole community.

The Council is responsible for the services it provides. It establishes policies for action and decides how money will be raised and spent on behalf of the community. It is responsible for spending public money lawfully and achieving the best value for money. Except in certain circumstances (Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960) Council meetings are open to the public.

The Council as a body decides whether to work in partnership with other organisations and it often serves (through representatives) on other bodies. An individual Councillor (including the Chair) cannot make a decision on behalf of the Council so when working in partnership, Councillors must always remember that they represent the Council as a corporate body.