06 Jul 2026
SADC leader Cllr Paul de Kort has responded to criticism surrounding the make-up of a new organisation which will steer the creation of a parish council for St Albans city centre.
As part of the recent Community Governance Review (CGR), councillors on SADC’s strategy and resources committee have proposed creating a parish council to represent 28,000 households in Batchwood, Bernards Heath, Clarence, Cunningham, Hill End, Marshalswick West, Sopwell, St Peter’s and Verulam wards.
But they also approved creating a shadow council to make crucial decisions on the formation and remit of this body to be made up of eight existing Lib Dem councillors and one Green, instead of involving community organisations like residents’ associations, faith groups, cultural bodies, voluntary organisations and business representatives.
This decision met with criticism from opposition councillors and St Albans Civic Society, who claimed it was a wasted opportunity to involve proper representation from key stakeholders.
Cllr de Kort has now explained the reasoning behind creating the shadow council under party political lines.
“The reason we choose to appoint to the shadow parish council those who have been already democratically elected in a public election, rather than those running the Civic Society or residents’ associations on behalf of specific membership bodies, is based on fundamental democratic principles.
“It is very important that residents across the whole wide span of St Albans city are not confused as to what the limited remit of this shadow parish council is. It will operate for no more than eight months before being replaced by a democratically elected body formed after a set of elections that will now occur in May next year.
“This body has no decision-making powers around the control of assets or even statements of values and principles. It has, though, a key administrative role in ensuring that the elected new local parish representatives can get started, without delay, on delivering on what they have promised to achieve in their campaigns. It is clear some of these campaigns have started already, so it is very important that residents are not in any doubt about what is being done by whom.
“Importantly, the long-established Central Neighbourhoods Committee (CNC) remains in place, with its current composition and playing the same role, including political decision-making, until the elected new parish council is ready to assemble. They are two separate bodies with separate purposes.
“This separation of power and remit must remain clear to residents and this is why it has been decided that they will meet on different dates.
“The shadow parish council meetings will, crucially, have an independent parish clerk in attendance who will advise it how it is progressing through its narrow, but serious and time constrained, objective of getting the new, democratically elected parish council in a position to take flight successfully in early May next year.
“Because we Liberal Democrats believe in community engagement and transparency, each meeting will begin with any interest group or individual being able to raise, in open forum, all issues that relate to the best formation of the elected authority. As with all committee meetings in this district, the general public will be able to listen and reflect on the deliberations of the committee. There is nothing to hide and everything to see.
“However, until the first parish council elections can happen next May, the only way to ensure that all local residents’ interests are being served is for one of their local ward councillors, democratically chosen, to take up this mantle. At the most recent elections, held less than two months ago, the message was clear, once again, that these communities most trust Liberal Democrat councillors to look after their interests, as every single one of the nine wards returned a representative from my party.
“In just 10 more months, fresh elections will determine if they have maintained that trust. I am confident that they will, but I am also delighted that once again these will be highly competitive elections, unlike many parts of the world, where resident association leaders, Civic Society members and many other individuals of all ages, gender and ethnicity will stand and present their case for the merits of their candidacy.”
Civic Society chair Mary Conneely responded to his comments: “We’ve always presumed that a shadow parish council would be its own sovereign body with directly elected members on it representing different political views. With an 8-1 representation, that’s unlikely.
“We know that the shadow council will not be decision-making but our members are nonetheless concerned that not all the nine elected councillors appointed to the shadow council this autumn will be familiar with the breadth of responsibilities and opportunities a parish council can legally undertake.
“The Civic Society believes adding community voices and views who make decisions on the range of diverse issues affecting St
Albans city will strengthen the shadow council. From its outset, and on to the elected new parish council, expertise drawn from various sources with knowledge and commitment to the city, working together to ensure the new city council gets up and running able to meet the needs of the community from the start.
“Community representatives on the shadow council should have an indicative vote, however they need to be included in the full discussions on the work and proposals of the shadow council and not be some adjunct allowed in for half an hour. To balance that, only councillors should have a binding, constitutional vote.
We have consistently argued that other community/business groups have a legitimate right to be heard on, participate in and contribute to a shadow council.
“To reflect the fact that parish councils are a far wider based form of local governance than district councils and representation on them should also reflect this wider grass roots, community foundation; the shadow council is the one chance we have for that.”
Green and Independents group leader Cllr Simon Grover set out their approach at the recent meeting: “I’d like us to consider widening the membership of the interim shadow council to include community representatives.
“This council already established this way of working with the community through the City Neighbourhoods Committee. On top of that, the report is clear that the interim council ‘is not a district council body’, so there is no particular reason why every member of it should be a district councillor.
“The shadow council’s job is institution-building, not decision-making, so the usual objection to unelected people having power doesn’t apply.
“As a single party happens to dominate this area, eight of the nine seats go to one party. Having community members on board would set the right tone for a council that will need community trust from day one, and community groups have specialist local knowledge that elected councillors sometimes don’t have.
“Guidance from the Society of Local Council clerks specifically recommends ‘co-option of residents and community leaders’ onto these bodies. Co-opting would probably be the simplest approach, and we could agree to that principle this evening, say for a third of members to be co-opted, but there might be other ways of doing it.
“Other areas have gone further. In Horsham, neighbourhood council chairs were included as members of the interim body. Torbay Council set up the shadow body for Brixham Town Council, and its own report recommended that members of the local community campaign group, including a residents’ association, school governors, and people from youth services, be invited to participate alongside elected councillors.
“Sutton Coldfield Town Council, one of the largest parish councils in England, included the Town Council Referendum Group, the BID and a local charitable trust on its steering group, and gave that body statutory, decision-making powers.
“I think we have an exciting opportunity to co-create this new community body with the community, and get it off to a flying start. The scale of what’s being created here warrants a shadow council process that matches its ambition.”
