Great Wakering Parish Council

Great Wakering Parish Council is a Statutory elected body of 13 Councillors who represent the people of Great Wakering and run a number of local services.

The Parish Council offices can be found near the centre of the village in their own premises in Little Wakering Hall Lane. The office is open from Monday until Friday in the morning from 9a.m. until 12 noon excluding Bank Holidays. There are thirteen Parish Councillors serving three Wards (East, Central and West). The current Chairman is Councillor Tony Porter and the Clerk is Mr John Watson. 

The Parish Council is the level of local government in Rochford nearest to the people of Great Wakering. The old parishes were formed at a time when there was little difference, to the local people, between the Church and the State. A parish like Great Wakering usually formed around a village or other small settlement and used to be centred around the Parish Church. In the late 1800s Church and State separated but the same area is now represented as a local authority by the Great Wakering Parish Council and the Church of England by the Parochial Church Council.

The Parish Councils have many powers and some duties.

An example of a power is the one that allows the purchase and operation of street lighting. One duty requires the council to open the meetings to the press and public, with few exceptions. They manage local amenities in Great Wakering and have a watching brief on local issues and their opinion is noted by those higher authorities in matters concerning them such as local planning issues.

The Parish Council have taken on a government-backed, national initiative, to help empower parishioners and let them have their say in the running and development of their own community. They formed a steering group, formed from a mixture of local residents and other invlved closesly with the Parish Council, with the objective of collecting feedback from the community and forming and actioning the Great Wakering Parish Plan.

More information on the Great Wakering Parish Council can be found by clicking here.