What is a Community Governance Review?      

A Community Governance Review (CGR) is a way for local authorities to make sure that at parish level, governance arrangements are working as efficiently and effectively as they should be. This is achieved by asking the public, local councils and any interested parties whether they feel their communities are suitably represented and whether parishes would like to see any changes made to their current governance arrangements.  

A CGR is an opportunity to change parish names, warding patterns, the number of parish councillors and in certain circumstances, amend external parish boundaries, and create / merge / abolish parishes.  

Milton Keynes City Council (MKCC), as the principal council, is responsible for carrying out the review. The final recommendations from the review must be agreed by Full Council. Final proposals will be presented to Full Council for approval on the 22 October 2025.  

Formal Consultation 

MKCC undertook a Community Governance Review (CGR) of all 48 parishes in the city. Following informal consultation with all parishes, we used their responses to develop our draft proposals which we formally consulted on from Thursday 19 June 2025 and finished on Thursday 11 September 2025. The Terms of Reference set out how the review was conducted and the matters on which the review was focused on.    

The consultation is now closed.  

Final Recommendations  

We have reviewed all consultation submissions and used them to inform our final recommendations, and these will be considered at Full Council on Wednesday 22 October 2025. The Full council report, including the final recommendations and reasons for the recommendations is available to view here: Agenda for Council on Wednesday 22nd October, 2025, 7.30 pm | Milton Keynes City Council . 

The timetable shows the key dates when the council will consider reports and make decisions relating to this review. If the final recommendations are approved by Full council, then MKCC will make and publish a Reorganisation Order to put the changes into effect. 

CGR Timetable   

A CGR must by statute be completed within a 12-month period from the day on which it commences. The CGR begins when the Council publishes its Terms of Reference and concludes when it publishes the recommendations made in the review.   

The below is an indicative timetable and is therefore subject to alteration: