General introduction

There are three levels of local government in this area:
  • County Councils: These are the highest level, responsible for services such as education, waste management (recycling and disposal but not collection), public libraries & museums, social services, roads, transport, consumer protection, police, fire and strategic planning. Counties are divided into Boroughs which have their own Councils providing local services as below.
  • Borough Councils: responsible for services such as housing, waste collection, council tax collection (for all levels), local planning, licensing, cemeteries and crematoria. Boroughs are divided into Civil Parishes which have their own Councils
  • Parish Councils: These are the lowest tier and have very limited responsibilities, some of which may have been delegated down from the Borough Council.
    Note, Parish Councils here means Civil parishes, not Ecclestiastical parishes which are controlled by the Church and are not part of local Government.The two can cover the same area but are frequently quite different.
For details of local authority services such as education, health care, public libraries, police and fire, see our Information page, or use the links below to the official sites.
  For those in Norfolk, the local councils and their websites are:
  • Norfolk County Council
  • Kings Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council.
  • Welney Parish Council. For many years this had very limited information and minutes of the current year only. It has improved a little with minutes going back several years but in June 2019 when this page was updated it was several months out of date - wasn't showing April minutes or May election results and still has virtualy no information about Welney other the Council's business.
    Our own page all about Welney Parish Council is far more comprehensive, explaining their role, duties and responsibilites (and a few of their many shortcomings) and there are links to our archives of the minutes of their meetings from 2004 to date, together with Councillors attendance records.
  • Upwell Parish Council.
parish boundary map Welney and surrouding areas. showing Welney Parish boundary.
click for larger view
  For those in Cambridgeshire west of the Washes, the councils are:
 
  For those in Cambridgeshire east of the Washes, the councils are: