Lewes Town Council also maintains and funds some local facilities, such as All Saints Community Centre, the Town Hall and allotments. Town Council gives grants to local organisations and community projects, such as the Pells Pool, for example. It is funded almost entirely by its share of the Council Tax. It has only an advisory role when it comes to planning permission, but is supposed to be ‘listened to’ by the District and County Councils on planning issues.
So of the three, the Town Council has the least power, despite the fact that it is the most ‘local’ of the three, as a body representing specifically people in the town itself.
But all local elected Councils have rapidly been losing their power and influence to do as much as they once did, due to the fact that recent governments have reduced central government funding for local authorities in real terms, making local government more and more dependent on the Council Tax to raise money. So it seems that until things change at the very top and the system itself changes, nothing much else is going to change.
I think It’s still worth bothering to vote though, if only to register what you feel about local issues, or what should be done about things like flood defences or the new Phoenix and other local developments for example. Or to make a protest at the whole system of government itself? NP