General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

Data Protection law has changed. On the 25th May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation, known as GDPR, came into effect. GDPR imposes additional obligations on organisations and gives you extra rights around how your data is used.

We want you to know that Birchwood Town Council respects the information we hold on you and that we take the security of your information very seriously.

We have recently published a new Privacy Notice to give you more information on the data we hold on you, what we do with that data, who we share your data with and your new rights under GDPR.

Click here to view our Privacy Policy.

Alternatively we can send you a copy if you ask us to.

Chair of Birchwood Town Council 2018-2019

Cllr David Ellis (outgoing Chair) congratulates Cllr Ian Atkin on his appointment as Chair of the Town Council for 2018/19.

Cllr Nigel Reeves is Vice Chair of the Town Council for 2018-2019. 

About Birchwood Town Council

Birchwood Town Council is the first tier of local government and is therefore the closest to the local community, followed by Warrington Borough Council.

Parish and Town Councils were created in law and they can only act within the law by exercising their powers and functions which have been conferred on them by Statutes (i.e. Acts of Parliament). Town Councils have a number of powers available to them, but the ability to exercise any such powers may sometimes depend upon a number of other other factors such as land ownership, financing or planning approval.

There is some confusion as to what the difference is between a Parish and Town Council. The answer is simple, nothing, they are exactly the same. However, a Town Council can elect a Mayor to be Head of Council instead of a Chairperson. Birchwood Town Council chooses to have a Chairperson, and in May of each year a Chair is elected by the Council to serve for a period of 12 months.  The Chair for 2018-2019 is Cllr Ian Atkin.

In order to support their activities Parish/Town Councils need funds, and they are primarily funded from a small percentage of the Council Tax charge made by Warrington Borough Council to parishioners. This is known as the Precept. For the majority of Parish Councils the precept is a small portion of the whole Council Tax Bill and is the main source of income.  The level of this precept is at the discretion of the parish, based on the Council's budget and the number of Band D equivalent properties within the parish. Birchwood Town Council does not receive any Government funding or income from business rates, but it does receive a very small amount of additional income from letting out its meeting room.

The Town Council campaigns on local issues and lobbies other agencies (including land owners) to take action or rectify defects which are in the interests of the local community and it comprises of twelve Councillors who are elected by the people of Birchwood. The next election will take place in 2016 and it is an all-out election. The twelve Councillors represent four wards within Birchwood; Chatfield (2), Gorse Covert (3), Locking Stumps (4) and Oakwood (3). Birchwood also has three Borough Councillors; Cllr Russ Bowden, Cllr Chris Fitzsimmons and Cllr Pauline Nelson.

There are three part-time administrative staff based at Parkers Farm; The Clerk, Business and Finance Officer and Deputy Clerk who, together with local Councillors, deal with matters of concern to local residents on a daily basis.  There is also a part-time Facilities Caretaker/Cleaner who takes bookings for the Community Meeting Room and keeps the Town Council's premises clean and tidy.

Birchwood Town Council is quite unique in that it has its own community maintenance resource currently made up of a full time Senior Maintenance Operative and seven Maintenance Operatives, two of whom are part-time. They are on hand five days a week to tackle things such as litter picking, some landscape and horticulture maintenance, footpath gritting as well as many other jobs.

In 2017 the teams took on some additional, intermediate grass cutting on the Warrington Borough Council land in Birchwood.  This is done in between, and in addition to, the Borough Council's grass cutting schedule.  

There are many things which the Town Council does on a daily basis; delivering and coordinating services to meet local needs and striving to improve the quality of life in the parish.

All our staff are competent and are equipped with the knowledge, support and equipment required to do their job.

The administrative offices are usually open Monday to Friday from 9.00 am until 4.00 pm and the Maintenance Team is out and about from 8.00 am until 4.00 pm Monday to Friday.