Future Worcester

Should Worcester have a parish council?

Worcester City Council is asking residents for their views on a proposal to create a new parish council for the currently unparished areas of Worcester. That means the whole city apart from St Peter’s and Warndon Villages, which already have parish councils.

Future Worcester is Community Governance Review and we are gathering the opinions of residents, community groups and organisations through a two-stage consultation.

The aim of Future Worcester is to ensure community governance arrangements are appropriate at a local level. Local communities should have access to good quality local services. A parish council may be well placed to provide services which are easy to reach and accessible to local people.

Make your voice heard

The second stage of the Future Worcester consultation runs from 29 October 2026 to 10 December 2026.

You are advised to thoroughly read this webpage before you can answer the questions in the consultation.

pdf You should also read the Future Worcester booklet here (1.31 MB) . 

Have your say in the Future Worcester consultation

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Paper copies will also be available from the Guildhall, The Hive, St John’s Library and Warndon Library.

Face-to-face drop-in sessions

Residents can find our more in person at FREE drop-in sessions during November.

Thursday 12 November

Guildhall, High Street WR1 2EY: 10.30am-11.30am

Monday 16 November

Ronkswood Hub, Canterbury Rd, Worcester WR5 1PJ: 10am-11am

Tuesday 17 November

St. John’s Library, Glebe Close WR2 5AX: 10.30am-11.30am

St. Peter’s Village Hall, St. Peter's Drive WR5 3TA: 12 noon-1pm

Tuesday 24 November

Perdiswell Leisure Centre, Bilford Road WR3 8DX: 10.30am-11.30am

Lyppard Hub, Ankerage Green WR4 0DZ: 12.15pm-1.15pm 

Why is the Future Worcester review taking place?

How Worcester residents are represented at a local level is changing.

The Government is proposing to change the way in which your councils are organised. Under current proposals, Worcester City Council – after hundreds of years – would no longer exist and would be replaced by a new Unitary Council, providing all the services currently run by your City and County Councils. This new council would cover a much bigger area than just Worcester.

The Government’s current timetable for Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) is being reviewed, but Ministers have stated that it will still be happening.

This creates an opportunity for a new, local council for Worcester.

Almost every part of Worcestershire already has parish or town councils, including the local towns of Malvern, Evesham, Droitwich, Tenbury Wells, Upton-upon-Severn and Pershore.

Two parts of Worcester already have parish councils: St Peter’s and Warndon Villages. But under LGR other Worcester residents would have no equivalent local voice unless new arrangements are created.

To do this, the law requires that a Community Governance Review takes place, under which residents are asked what kind of local governance they want in future.

What has happened so far?

The first stage of the Future Worcester consultation took place earlier in 2026. Respondents were asked for their views on whether Worcester should have:

• a single parish council for the whole city,
• a parish council just for the currently unparished areas,
• several smaller parish councils based on neighbourhood identity.

The responses showed support for creating a new parish council for Worcester, and for supporting the existing parish councils in St Peter’s and Warndon Villages. There were over 900 responses and 76% of respondents said they would like a new parish council.

See the full results of the stage one consultation. 

The results of the first stage consultation were debated by the elected members of Worcester City Council on 14 July 2026. They selected a preferred option of proposals to create a single new parish council to cover the area of Worcester that does not already have a parish council.

See the agenda and minutes of the Council meeting of 14 July 2026. 

This second stage of the consultation gives you the opportunity to comment on those proposals.

What are the proposals?

The proposals in the Future Worcester preferred option are explained in the Future Worcester booklet. It is proposed to:

• Create and form a parish council called ‘City of Worcester Council’ to cover the area of the city that is currently unparished. The two existing Parish Councils of St Peter the Great County and Warndon Villages would remain in place (see map below)
• Divide the new parish council into nine smaller areas. These would follow the same boundaries as the existing County Council divisions and the boundaries of the proposed Unitary Council (see map below)
• Charge a precept (a new increase to the amount of Council Tax paid by each household in the new parish area) to pay for the running of the parish council and the services it may provide
• Name the parish areas. These would each have the same names as the existing County Council divisions and the names of the proposed Unitary Authority areas, except for the St Peter division, which will become Battenhall
• Elect 17 councillors to represent the nine areas that make up the whole parish area.

What happens next?

This second stage of the Future Worcester consultation gives you the chance to have your say on the above proposals.

Once the consultation is closed on 10 December, the responses will be collated and analysed, and the results will be presented to the City Councillors.

The Council will consider the results of this consultation, debate the issue, and make a final decision before the end of January 2027.

If the Council decides to create a parish council, elections to the new body would take place at the same time as other planned elections, to minimise costs.

Other information

What is a parish council and what would it do?

Parish councils represent the interests of their community by providing services to meet local needs and improving the quality of life, the local environment  and community wellbeing.

Parish councils can drive community projects and initiatives, and can attract funding and grants unavailable to larger authorities.

To begin with, the new parish council would have responsibility for only a few services. As time went on it could negotiate with the larger authorities, local landowners and other partners to take on more duties. No transfer of services or assets will be agreed until the new parish is formed.

Typical parish council duties include allotments, community centres, events, street markets, public toilets. pdf You can read a more detailed list in the Future Worcester booklet (1.31 MB) .

The parish council can decide to designate itself as a town council. This would enable the transfer of the rights under the City’s charters and various civic titles and regalia from the City Council to the new local council.

What will it cost?

Setting up a new parish council will affect Council Tax bills in Worcester, except in Warndon Villages and St Peter’s.

The amount added to a Council Tax bill to fund a parish council is called a ‘precept’.

Parish councils set their own precept, which pays for the running of the council and the services it provides.

The precept for a new parish council in Worcester is estimated to be between £60 and £100 for an average Band D property for the first year. That’s about £5 to £8.34 a month. It would be part of your Council Tax bill from the April after the parish council was created.

The proposed precept is based on a wider national picture of what similar councils charge. In 2025/26, the average parish precept for a Band D property in England was £92.22 per year. What a precept would fund will be a matter for the new parish to decide after discussion with the new unitary council. In its first year the new parish council would be funded by the City Council.

The parish council could increase its precept each year to fund more services, or lower it if providing fewer services. There is no cap on the minimum or maximum precept, or how much it can change in any one year.

Have your say in the Future Worcester consultation