A BOROUGH councillor has called for parish councils to become more powerful.

Haslington councillor, Dawn Threadgold, believes there needs to be a cultural reform and says parish councils can take advantage of future Government modernisation.

With more representation at borough level and hopefully more money, Cllr Threadgold hopes the parishes will be able to take on more decisions about local issues.

"There is much frustration at parish council level," Cllr Threadgold explained.

"Parish councillors are keenly aware of the work that needs doing in their areas but they continually have to pass on requests to other bodies to get this done.

"At the present time their influence is bounded by their inability to raise sufficient money to provide all but a skeleton service," added Cllr Threadgold.

The Labour-run borough council is hoping that the Cabinet modernisation scheme will finally get the go ahead in May, meaning the changes can begin under the Best Value regime.

Cllr Threadgold explained it will become a requirement that parish councils have a representative on the Ethics and Standards Committee in the new council structure.

"Apart from that the parish councils are going to be increasingly targeted for partnership agreements with the borough and county council so they will have to have a regard for the parish," Cllr Threadgold continued.

"The model for the future suggests they will have more of a say about what goes on in their area."

Cllr Threadgold quoted the example of Birchwood Town Council, outside Warrington, which has its own budget for tackling issues such as litter and graffiti

"Birchwood is delivering services, they have a couple of vans which go around and continually make sure everything is clean and make repairs.

"Although people may be paying a little bit more, they actually see improvements almost immediately," she added.

Deputy Leader of the Conservative group Cllr Donald Potter, said they were behind the idea in principle but added: "They are going to enhance parish councils through the Best Value process but I am not sure that it gives you value.

"The Labour Party has a national policy of centralisation, controlling things from the core," he added.