What is a Parish Council ?
A parish is the smallest administrative unit within the hierarchy of local government i.e. counties, districts and parishes. Long Itchington is one of 109 parishes within the Stratford-on-Avon District, which in turn is one of 5 districts within the County of Warwickshire.
Despite its name, it has nothing to do with the parish church or its governing body although the geographic area covered by the Parish of Long Itchington roughly coincides with the parochial boundaries of Holy Trinity, the local C of E church. This is because the old parish church boundaries were used as the basis for creating civil parish councils towards the end of the 19th century.
The Parish of Long Itchington covers the area bounded by Firs Farm to the east, Snowford Hill to the west, the old railway line to the north and just beyond the main road between Southam and Ufton to the South. It is administered by a Parish Council which is a directly elected body with elections held every 4 years. There are 9 council members representing nearly 1,700 electors.
The electoral roll is updated annually and all registered adults over the age of 18 are entitled to vote in Parish, District, County and national elections. Parish Council elections are unique in that you have as many votes as there are council seats, so in our village you can vote for up to 9 different candidates!
It is a generally held view, certainly as far as Long Itchington is concerned, that national party politics have no place at all in parish council activities. Long Itchington Parish Council (LIPC) is solely concerned with local people, local issues and ensuring that the interests of the village as a whole are represented to the District and County councils.