Keynsham - Governance

Governance

The town council has responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover the council’s operating costs and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The town council evaluates local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The town council's role includes projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, such as the village hall or community centre, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning.

Playing fields and playgrounds are provided in Memorial Park, Downfield, Kelston Road, Teviot Road, Holmoak Road and Manor Road with basketball facilities at Teviot Road and Holmoak Road and a BMX track at Keynsham Road. The Keynsham town council is also responsible for the football pitches and pavilion at Manor Road and the floodlit Multi Sport Site in Memorial Park. It also provides support for community groups organising music and cultural events. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also of interest to the council. The town council was formed in 1991 and consists of 15 members elected every four years. There are 6 Liberal Democrats, 3 Labour and 6 Conservative. Keynsham has one official twin town: Libourne in France.

From 1974 to 1996, Keynsham was administered as part of the short-lived county of Avon; it has since formed part of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset, in the ceremonial county of Somerset. Bath and North East Somerset which was created in 1996, was established by the Local Government Act 1992. The town is divided into Keynhsam North, which has two Conservative councillors, and Keynsham South which is represented by one Conservative and one Labour councillor.

Bath and North East Somerset provides a single tier of local government with responsibility for almost all local government functions within its area including local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection, recycling, cemeteries, crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism. It is also responsible for education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport, trading standards, waste disposal and strategic planning, although fire, police and ambulance services are provided jointly with other authorities through the Avon Fire and Rescue Service, Avon and Somerset Constabulary and the Great Western Ambulance Service.

Bath and North East Somerset's area covers part of the ceremonial county of Somerset but it is administered independently of the non-metropolitan county. Its administrative headquarters is in Bath, but many departments are headquartered in Keynsham. Between April 1, 1974 and April 1, 1996, it was the Wansdyke district and the City of Bath of the county of Avon. Before 1974 that the parish was part of the Keynsham Urban District.

The parish is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom as part of the North East Somerset constituency, which is a county constituency created by the Boundary Commission for England as the successor seat to the Wansdyke Parliamentary Seat. It came into being at the 2010 general election, and is represented by the Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. It is also part of the South West England constituency of the European Parliament which elects six MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.