Community comes together to work towards turning Middlebeck into a Parish Council

A community is coming together to turn its estate into a parish to ensure that council tax and funds are invested directly into the community.

Johno Lee has been in talks to create a parish council for Middlebeck for about eight years, but Newark Town Council’s recent finance and general purposes meeting prompted him and residents to act.

Residents believe that if Middlebeck became a parish council, it could ensure that all council tax raised in Middlebeck is spent there, enhancing the green spaces, roads, and community facilities.

They also believe that they would be able to secure all future Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds from Middlebeck’s development to be invested directly in projects and infrastructure for the neighbourhood, and could set a lower council tax rate.

While he has no intention of running for a position on the proposed parish council, Mr Lee wants the initiative to be driven by residents, and put out a statement on social media appealing for residents to take the lead on the effort, offering his help and guidance on setting up a petition.

He said: “Creating a parish council for Middlebeck is likely to bring significant benefits, especially with its large size, high income, and minimal expenditure needs.

“However, the success of the council will depend on careful planning, strong leadership, and community involvement to avoid common pitfalls.

“By addressing these challenges proactively, the parish council can position itself as a model of local governance that effectively serves the needs of Middlebeck residents.”

Jack Titterton, who has been living in Middlebeck for just over a year, came forward to lead the petition, which is due to be set up in the new year.

He said: “There are huge benefits to Middlebeck becoming a parish council — we could lessen the burden on our pockets by potentially reducing council tax costs whilst driving a sustainable improvement to our services.

“We would look to adopt the land and give the local residents direct control of their environment.

“We would also look to alleviate the financial burden on district councils running open spaces.

“It seems a no-brainer.”

In January, a team will collect petition signatures from Middlebeck residents, and once they reach at least 7% of the residents, they can get the process started.

Once completed, the petition can be submitted to the district council, which will conduct a governance review to assess the proposal.

If approved, the new Middlebeck Parish Council could be established in time for the next district council elections.

In 2011, a contract was entered into between a number of organisations, including the developer of Middlebeck and Newark and Sherwood District Council, which detailed the contractual framework for the development, creation, delivery, and future maintenance of a large range of public infrastructure that would form part of the Middlebeck development.

This included green space, play areas, walkways and footpaths, public landscaping, country parks, a fishing lake, the banks of drainage attenuation ponds, sports pitches and 'Public Open Space'.

In 2015, Newark Town Council took over ownership of a variety of assets that belonged to the district council, but in November this year, Newark Town Council informed the district council that they do not wish to take on Middlebeck Phase One Publish Open Space due to feeling the financial strain of having taken on assets in 2015, but said they wish to enter discussions with the district council to identify where they may be able to support the development of Middlebeck green spaces.

Mr Lee added: “This initiative aims to ensure that the council tax we pay and the funds generated from Middlebeck’s development are invested directly into our community, rather than being distributed across Newark with minimal return to Middlebeck.

“Currently, Middlebeck’s council tax contributions go to Newark Town Council under the premise that we would receive additional services.

“However, this promise has not been fulfilled.”

Newark Town Council Matthew Gleadell said: “Public spaces in Middlebeck continue to be owned by the housing developer Urban and Civic. Although a transfer of Phase 1 into public ownership is due in the near future that change of ownership is yet to occur.

“The Town Council has resolved once the public assets come under public ownership it will work with NSDC to identify areas where value can be added by the Town Council to the public spaces in Middlebeck.

“Council tax income from Middlebeck residents is already used to support a variety of services that are accessed by and available to Middlebeck residents including Public Toilets, Allotments, Parks and Green Spaces, Newark Cemetery, Newark Royal Market, Newark Town Hall as well as many free to access public events that take place throughout the year.”

Despite highlighting the benefits of creating a new parish council, potential pitfalls are also mentioned, such as administrative costs, governance and accountability, election costs, public expectations, competing priorities, boundary challenges, risk of underutilised funds, setup and transition period, resistance from other councils and long-term viability.

John Robinson, chief executive at Newark and Sherwood District Council said, “We doubt very much that creating a new parish council is a priority for local residents. As such, it’s not something that we are currently investing our time or taxpayers’ money on.”