Spalding Town Forum has district councillors and representatives of community bodies sitting on it, but has no powers. It acts only in an advisory form to the cabinet. A town council would lead to an election of individuals, not necessarily with any political persuasion.
One Spalding resident in favour of the creation of a town council is David Jones, chairman of cycle action group Pedals and a committee member of Spalding and District Civic Society.
He said: “It’s interesting. We’re one of the few towns that hasn’t got a town council.
“What powers would it have? Is it just another layer of bureaucracy?
“It would be good to have a bit of tooth to represent the specific interests of Spalding.
“There’s a feeling that London gets everything in England, Lincoln gets everything in Lincolnshire and Spalding gets everything in South Holland. At least if we had a parish council everything would be separate and ring-fenced.
“The civic society would like one. At the moment, any planning applications in, say, Pinchbeck get looked at by Pinchbeck Parish Council. Any applications for Spalding wouldn’t get looked at at all if it weren’t for the civic society.”
District council members were told in a report on January 18: “Before committing significant resources to a full CGR (Community Governance Review), it is suggested that an informal consultation process is followed in order to gauge whether there is sufficient support for a full governance review.”
Leaflets (pictured) will be included with council tax bills posted to Spalding addresses. There will also be an option to vote online.
If more than 15 per cent of the Spalding electorate responds in favour – and that is larger than the no responses – the district council will press ahead with a “lengthy” CGR.
