a. General guidance

Community governance reviews allow principal councils to assess and make changes to community governance structures within their areas. These reviews are particularly useful when there are changes in population or in response to new local issues.

The CGR process is set out in the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. The 2007 Act aims to streamline decision-making in community governance reviews, particularly regarding the creation of new parishes, the establishment of parish councils, changes to parish boundaries, and electoral arrangements. By transferring decision-making powers from central government to local government, the Act seeks to simplify and localize the process, allowing decisions to be made more efficiently at the local level.

The guidance issued by the Secretary of State and the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) in 2010 covers:

• undertaking community governance reviews

• the making of recommendations for electoral arrangements for parish councils and the making of consequential recommendations to the LGBCE for related alterations to the boundaries of electoral areas of principal councils

• giving effect to recommendations made in community governance reviews

The government guidance can be found here. 

NALC have also  issued an advice note on their website - Community governance reviews (England) 

[To access the NALC website you will need to set up an individual account (SALC members only).  Video guidance on how to do this is available here - https://youtu.be/zapNDmP8jjY?si=jtXhLh0Wm5ANHrO4]