This page gives some information regarding the Parish Council itself including a bit of history and the powers and duties it has.
Parish Councils are one of the oldest, unreformed parts of local government. Elwick Parish Coucil was formed under the Local Government Act 1894 with seven elected members to cover the parish of Elwick only (the area to the east of North Lane). It did not include the parish of Elwick Hall, the land to the west of North Lane. The first meeting of the Parish Council was on 4th December 1895 and a Clerk was also appointed at a salary of £5 per year.
In 1897 it established the first village bye laws which were only revised in the 1980‘s.
Following this, a number of successful prosecutions were taken out for such offences as grazing a pony on The Green and driving a horse and cart on The Green.
The minute books also show that in 1902 the Parish Council complained about the state of the road between the village and West Hartlepool which just goes to show that things don’t really change! This was repeated in 1913 when it was reported that Doctors were charging extra to come to the village since they had to come to the village via Hart or Dalton Piercy because the road was so bad.
Although there is much interesting history of the Parish Council, the next major development was the amalgamation of Elwick and Elwick Hall parishes in the 1970s to form the present Parish Council. This meant that overnight, the population of the Parish almost doubled and its geographical area quadrupled. We will endeavour to put more instalments on this site over the next few months. Watch this space!
This is a complex area of what we can and cannot do but, in general, the Council has quite wide ranging powers but not too many duties. In Elwick, the main responsibility is to do with the maintenance of The Green and open spaces including arranging grass cutting, tree maintenance and other general maintenance and improvement functions. Ownership of the Village Green is vested in the Parish Council who are entrusted with the enforcement of the bye laws. Even if the Council so wished, it cannot allow the Green to be used for car parking or similar since it is unlawful.
More recently, the Parish Council has become involved in major issues facing the village such as attempting to maintain a bus service following removal of bus subsidies by the Borough Council, campaigning to get high speed broadband into the village and surrounding areas and generally seeking to improve the lot of the rural area generally.
The Parish Council normally consist of seven councillors who are elected every four years.
The current councillors are:-
Peter Hutchinson- Chairman - 01429 273444
Hilary Thompson - Vice Chairman 01429 272532
John Hall - 01429 260944
Ruth Musgrave - 01429 273312
Roderick Thompson - 01429 272532
Barbara Irviing - 01429 278800
At present (July 2016) there is a vacancy which the council is attempting to fill.
Minna West - Clerk to the Council (see contact details)
The next elections are due in May 2018.
None of the Parish Councillors get any pay or expenses for this work.
Ward Councillors.
Rural West Ward, which includes Elwick, is represented on Hartlepool Borough Council by:-
Cllr. Brenda Loynes - 07599189984 - brenda.loynes@hartlepool.gov.uk
Cllr. George Morris - 01429 266793 - george.morris@hartlepool.gov.uk
Cllr. Ray Martin-Wells - 07598679322 - ray.martin-wells@hartlepool.gov.uk
Ward Councillors can also be contacted at the Civic Centre on 01429 266522
The Council meets on the last Monday of each month (but not in December and August when we are granted time off). Meetings are normally held in St. Peter’s School during term time or the WI Hall outside school terms. The general public is welcome although they are not officially allowed to take part in the meeting. Consequently, the Council allows a 15 minutes public forum at which members of the public can raise issue of concern. Agendas and minutes are published on the village noticeboard as well as on this web site. Meetings normally start at 7pm.
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