Malvern, Worcestershire - Governance

Governance

Malvern is the town and civil parish governed at the lowest tier of local government by Malvern Town Council, part of the Malvern Hills District of the County of Worcestershire, comprising 54 civil parishes and 22 electoral council wards. The present Malvern Town Council was created in 1996 as an autonomous local authority under the Local Government Act of 1972 and other Acts of Parliament. The ward boundaries were redefined from the wards of the former Malvern Urban District Council (1900–1974). Through the many changes in local government infrastructure since the beginning of the 20th century, the importance and distinction by local boundaries of the historical areas of Great Malvern, Malvern Link, North Malvern, Cowleigh, and other neighbourhoods, have been lost.

The original parish of Great Malvern included the hamlet of Guarlford and the chapelry of Newland, and stretched from the River Severn on the east to the Malvern Hills on the west. Guarlford became a separate civil parish in 1894 when, under the Local Government Act of 1894, urban district councils were created for Malvern and Malvern Link. The Guarlford parish covered much of eastern Malvern, including parts of Great Malvern, Pickersleigh, Poolbrook, Barnards Green, Hall Green and Sherrards Green. By 1900 however, the urban districts of Malvern and Malvern Link amalgamated, absorbing parts of neighbouring parishes to create a town of six wards under the Malvern Urban District Council. In 1934 the boundaries changed again, and those areas came under the control of the Malvern council.

Residents of Malvern Town in the six Malvern Town Council electoral wards are represented by 20 elected members. The council is supported by a team of senior executives that includes a Town Clerk, a Deputy Town Clerk, a PA to the Town Clerk and Chairman, an Operations and Events Officer, a Finance Officer, two Operations Managers, an Operations Supervisor, and eight Grounds Maintenance Operatives. The wards are based on the distribution of the population and generally ignore the names of the neighbourhoods and suburbs they contain, and use loaned names:

• Chase, covering Barnards Green, the extensive Ministry of Defence property occupied by QinetiQ, the campus of The Chase School, the village of Poolbrook, and the largely rural south-eastern area of the adjoining Poolbrook and Malvern commons.
• Dyson Perrins, the northern part of Malvern adjacent to Link with the campus of Dyson Perrins School and the former MoD DERA North Site, and the former hamlets of Interfield, Halfkey, and Upper Howsell.
• Link, that covers most of the area north of the Link Common between Link Top and Newland, and Upper and Lower Howsell.
• North Malvern, (referred to as 'West' on ONC maps), an area between Link Top (Link) and West Malvern civil parish, that includes the former village of Cowleigh.
• Pickersleigh, that includes the part of the former Great Malvern boundaries east of the railway between Barnards Green and Malvern Link to Madresfield, the former hamlets of Hall Green and Sherrards Green, and part of Barnards Green.
• Priory, that includes the town centre and areas west of the railway between North Malvern, and Malvern Wells civil parish.