Parish and town councils in England and community and town councils in Wales are the first tier of local government. They deliver a range of services at a community level.

There are around 10,000 community, parish and town councils in England and Wales, made up of nearly 100,000 councillors. These first-tier councils can respond to the needs of the community – delivering the services or representation it most needs.

Parish councils have a large range of powers.  Parish councils are statutory bodies. Members are elected for a term of four years and councils are funded principally by an annual precept

Parish councils are the lowest tier of government in England. They are no longer anything to do with the church, although the similarity in names can be misleading. The parish council is responsible for a parish, a small area normally enclosing one community. If the community is sufficiently large the council may be called a town council, rather than a parish council but its responsibilities and powers are identical.

Usually, the next tier above parish councils is the district council, which covers a much wider area, and above that comes the county council.  However, the last re-organisation of local government introduced the concept of unitary authorities combining the function of district and county councils. Peterborough is an example of this.

The parish can get money from its residents in the form of a "precept", which is added to the amounts requested by the next tier council, the police and fire authority and is then collected by the charging authority in the council tax.

Castor parish council is responsible for:

• play areas in the village - including the provision and maintenance of play equipment
• allotments
• Christmas tree
• many small bits of land around the village (including the green)
• commenting on all planning applications
• taking a lead in getting things done in the village
• considering applications for grant funding from voluntary bodies