Parish and town councils and parish meetings

They often cover things like allotments, bus shelters, village halls, children's playgrounds, parks, seats, signs, notice boards and have a significant input to planning.

Some larger parish councils may also get involved in providing street lighting, burial grounds and playing fields amongst other things. These councils are obliged to organise at least one town or parish meeting each year which all electors may attend and raise issues of concern.

Some of the parish councils are grouped together for administrative convenience and are "grouped councils" and have a single clerk for each group. An example of this would be Chesil Bank Grouped Council made up of Abbotsbury, Fleet, Langton Herring and Portesham.

Some smaller parishes have parish meetings which do not have elected members.

See a map of all Dorset parishes.

• A-Z of parish and town councils in Dorset

  An A-Z listing of all parish and town councils in Dorset

• Parish and town councils in Christchurch

  Christchurch has two parish councils - Burton and Hurn.

• Parish and town councils in East Dorset

  There are 18 town and parish councils in the East Dorset area.

• Parish and town councils in North Dorset

  In total there are 12 parish meetings, 33 parish councils, 9 grouped councils and 5 town councils in North Dorset forming the first tier of local government.

• Parish and town councils in Purbeck

  There are 27 parishes in the Purbeck district.

• Parish and town councils in West Dorset

  In total there are six Town Councils, 38 parish councils, 24 Grouped Parish Councils and 18 Parish Meetings in West Dorset forming the first tier of local government.

• Town, Parish and Village Plans

  Dorset County Council and the District Councils support the parish plan process and our services contribute to implementing some of the actions resulting from them.