About

Burwash Parish Council is the first tier of local government and closest to the community it serves.

It has certain powers to make decisions at a local level.

On the second Tuesday of each month the Full Council meets and makes decisions as a body on behalf of the local Parish. You can view the agendas, minutes and associated reports on our website here. Members of the public are welcome to attend the meetings and there is time set aside at the beginning of each meeting for public to speak on an Agenda item.

Burwash Parish Council  has 13 seats with no current vacancies.

You can find out more about individual councillors here.

The Parish Council has a number of Committees and Working Parties including Community & Events, Traffic & Transport, Environment & Maintenance and Planning.

A Committee is made up of Parish Councillors and has delegated powers and can make some decisions within the Terms of Reference for that committee.

Burwash Parish Council currently has 4 committees:

Finance & Administration Committee

The Finance & Admin Committee meets on a monthly basis, one week before the Full Council meeting to review the monthly finances of the Council and provide recommendations to Full Council on budgeting and finances for the years ahead.

Planning Committee

The Planning Committee usually meets on a Monday every 3 weeks. Current planning applications, upcoming consultations and development are discussed, along with appeals and enforcement items.

When a planning application is made it is validated by Rother District Council and then appears on a weekly list for the Parish Council to consider and make recommendations.
If you would like to view current planning applications for the parish you can access the Rother Planning Portal here.

Human Resources Committee

This Committee manages the staff of the Parish Council and any Human Resources related items and policies. We currently have one member of staff, the Clerk & RFO, Emma Neil.

Down Meadow Committee

This Committee was set up to deal with the decisions surrounding the land at Down Meadow. Down Meadow is a wild field gifted to the Parish Council in Burwash Common some 15 years ago.

A Working Party is a more informal group made up of both Councillors and public members. These are set up to focus on a particular project or area that affects the community and means public can get more involved at root level. They are also a good way for public to get a taste of some of the work councillors do prior to becoming a councillor themselves should they wish to get more involved.

Working parties are normally chaired by a member of the Parish Council and don’t have any delegated decision making power. Recommendations from these groups are then made to Full Council for consideration and final decision.

Burwash Parish Council currently has 4 Working Parties.

Community & Events Working Party – meeting quarterly face-to-face.
Environment & Maintenance Working Party – meeting bi-monthly virtually.
Traffic and Transport Working Party – meeting monthly virtually.