Our four committees meet in public and aim to be open and accessible and engage local people in decision-making.

• Each committee has a one-item spending limit of £1,000 and a yearly total limit. Spending above those limits (and any grant/donation) requires a vote by the full council.
• Each Committee will publish meeting dates on this website and schedule at least one meeting a year.
• Each committee or the full council can form working parties to work on specific tasks or projects. Working parties can meet informally and have no decision-making powers or budget.
• Non-councillors can be a member of any committee or working party except Finance & General Purpose.
• You can read our committee's terms of reference on our policies page.
• The Council Chair can attend and vote at any committee meeting.

Committees

1. Finance and General Purpose (F&GP) Committee

Chair: Michela Capozzi; Members: Mark Somervail (Vice Chair).

We check our clerk's financial reports and audits.

• An explanation of the headings in our clerk's annual statement can be found here.

Each month we check that all NPC spending complies with our financial regulations, for example:

• Contracts over £20,000 require 3 sealed tenders; over £3,000 requires 3 quotations, and over £100 require 3 estimates

The council receives funding from a number of sources:

• A slice of the local council tax (the precept), which was £44k in 2024
• Annual grants from Dacorum Borough Council to pay for maintaining public spaces, which in 2024 was £21,389.
• Renting out facilities that we own such as the allotments, which in 2024 raised £14,764.
• Windfalls, such as Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) money from a property developer to improve local infrastructure, which in 2024 was £16,078
  
• Grants that we applied for in 2024, we received a grant for our Grass Cutting of £3,714.00

Every six months we submit proposals to the full council regarding how these funds should be earmarked for future projects.

We also look at potential cost-savings

For example, we previously maintained 37 old-style street lamps. We had to pay for the electricity at about £2,000/year and every few years, we had to replace failed bulbs at £200 per bulb. So we updated all the lamps to long-life low-energy LEDs and transferred responsibility to Hertfordshire County Council. The transfer cost is £15,281 but this will lead to substantial savings for the parish council in the medium to long term.

2. Planning Committee

Chair: Mark Somervail; Members: Neil Pocock (Vice Chair), all councillors (attending in rotation)

Before deciding whether to grant or refuse a planning application, our Local Planning Authority, Dacorum Borough Council (DBC) must consider the views of Northchurch Parish Council. We check all planning applications within the parish and send our comments to DBC for their consideration. We meet in public regularly. If you would like to attend, please contact our clerk.

You can search for a planning application and make your own comment.

3.Allotments Committee

Chair: Michela Capozzi Chair; Members: Neil Pocock (Vice Chair), Parul Dix, Mark Somervail

We manage the allotments with the Clerk and set the annual rent. We aim to promote biodiversity and improve the health and mental well-being of local people.

Working Parties

1. Local Plan Working Party

Chair: Michela Capozzi. Members: all parish councillors

This working group was established at a full parish council meeting on 23 Nov 2020 to publicise Dacorum Borough Council's new Local Plan and to encourage local people to take part in the 10-week consultation period starting on 28 Nov 2020.

The Local Plan was withdrawn by DBC in 2021 but the working party remains to review future versions.

2. Policies and HR Working Party

Chair: Michela Capozzi, Members: Mark Somervail, 

This working group was established at a full council meeting in March 2018 and meets twice a year to review and manage policies, councillor vacancies, and conduct issues.

3. Road Safety Working Party

Chair: Lara Pringle; Members: Michela Capozzi (Vice-chair), Mark Somervail.

This working party was established in 2018 to to identify danger spots and make our roads safer.