Hemel Hempstead would get its first parish council, at £24.97 a year on Band D. The council's finance officer says that figure will rise. Consultation ends 18 September.
Update, 10 September 2026: the local government reorganisation described below has been paused. On 7 September the government put every reorganisation decision in England except Surrey’s under review, and Dacorum Borough Council confirmed the next day that the shadow authority elections planned for May 2027 will not go ahead. Dacorum will hold a full borough election and parish elections that month instead. The consultation itself is unaffected and still closes on 18 September. See our report on the pause and the new Local Plan.
Hemel Hempstead is being asked whether it wants a parish council of its own for the first time, with 30 councillors, its first elections on 6 May 2027, and a charge of £24.97 a year on a Band D home to pay for it. The consultation closes on 18 September 2026, and roughly 67,000 electors live in the area it covers. (Dacorum Borough Council, Community Governance Review)
What the council’s own consultation material does not put up front, and what the committee papers behind it do, is that the £24.97 is a first-year figure only. The borough’s Section 151 officer, the statutory finance officer, advised that the sum covers “the core administrative functions a parish council has to undertake” in a first operational year “when minimal services are expected to be delivered”, and is “likely to rise to be comparable with other Parishes within the area”. The average approved parish precept in Dacorum for 2026/27 is £56.26. (Dacorum Borough Council, Cabinet referral CA/59/26, Council agenda 22 July 2026, PDF)
That is the number worth arguing about while the consultation is open. On the council’s own advice, £24.97 is a starting point, not a settled price.
Why this is happening now
Hemel Hempstead is unparished. When Dacorum was formed in the 1970s from seven earlier councils, Tring and Berkhamsted each got a town council in 1974 and Hemel Hempstead did not, and it has been represented at the most local level by the borough ever since. Fourteen other parish councils serve communities across the borough. (Dacorum Borough Council, Community Governance Review)
The timing is driven by local government reorganisation. Under the decision taken in July 2026, Dacorum Borough Council and St Albans City and District Council were to be replaced by a new unitary authority, West Hertfordshire Council, with Dacorum and Hertfordshire County Council abolished on 31 March 2028 and the new authority taking over on 1 April 2028. Under those proposals, Hemel Hempstead would be the only unparished area in the whole new council area. That decision is now under government review, and the May 2027 elections to the shadow authority have been cancelled. (Dacorum Borough Council, Community Governance Review)
In other words, the borough that currently speaks for Hemel Hempstead is going away, and the question is whether the town gets its own tier of representation before that happens or becomes the one part of a much larger authority with nothing beneath it.
What is actually being proposed
The draft recommendations were agreed by Full Council on 22 July 2026, on a referral introduced by the council leader Councillor Symington and seconded by Councillor Dhyani. The minutes record simply that “Council agreed the recommendations”. (Dacorum Borough Council, draft minutes, Council, 22 July 2026, PDF)
The recommendations now out for consultation are these. (Dacorum Borough Council, Draft Recommendations, PDF)
- The unparished area of Hemel Hempstead becomes parished, with a new council initially named Hemel Hempstead Parish Council. Once it exists, it can rename itself, which is how it could become a town council in name.
- 30 parish councillors, two per ward, except Boxmoor, Chaulden and Warners End, and Leverstock Green, which get three each, and Bourne End and Felden, which gets one.
- Parish ward boundaries follow existing borough ward boundaries, with two changes: a new Bourne End and Felden parish ward, and the current Apsley and Corner Hall ward split into separate Apsley and Corner Hall parish wards. That split affects the parish ward only, and the borough ward is unchanged.
- First elections on 6 May 2027, to coincide with the ordinary year of parish elections. The draft recommendation says that if reorganisation moves that date, the parish election shifts to line up with the first election of the new unitary authority. Since the shadow authority elections have been cancelled, May 2027 now looks like an ordinary borough and parish polling day.
- Separately, Nash Mills Parish Council would be extended to take in polling district BAA, the currently unparished part of Nash Mills, with no change to its councillor numbers. Nash Mills would not form part of the new Hemel Hempstead parish.
The wards inside the review are Adeyfield East, Adeyfield West, Apsley and Corner Hall, Bennetts End, Boxmoor, Chaulden and Warners End, Gadebridge, Grovehill, Hemel Hempstead Town, Highfield, Leverstock Green, Woodhall Farm, part of Nash Mills, and the Bourne End and Felden polling districts of the Bovingdon, Flaunden and Chipperfield ward.
What it would cost, and what it could cost later
A parish council is funded by a precept, an extra line on the council tax bill. Parish and town councils get no government funding for day-to-day running costs, and each one sets its own precept every year. The proposed £24.97 is the Band D figure, the standard benchmark: homes in lower bands would pay proportionately less and homes in higher bands more.
For context, the council publishes three averages for a Band D property in 2026/27: £56.26 across Dacorum’s existing parishes, £78.59 across Hertfordshire, and £99.79 across the UK. (Dacorum Borough Council, Community Governance Review) The Cabinet decision itself says the draft precept is “to be finally agreed as part of the recommendations following the second consultation”, so the figure is not fixed even for year one. (Cabinet referral CA/59/26, PDF)
There is money on the other side of the ledger. A parish council normally receives 15% of Community Infrastructure Levy receipts from development in its area, rising to 25% where a neighbourhood plan is in place. In a town with as much building planned around it as Hemel Hempstead, that share is not trivial, and it is one of the more concrete powers on offer. (Dacorum Borough Council, Community Governance Review)
What it means for you
If you live in the area under review, this is a decision about paying a small amount more council tax in exchange for a body that is legally yours: one that can be consulted on planning applications, hold assets, run events and facilities, and speak for the town after the borough council no longer exists. Whether that is worth £24.97, or the larger figure it is expected to grow into, is exactly what the council is asking.
How to respond before 18 September 2026:
- Online through the council’s consultation portal, Let’s Talk Dacorum, where the draft recommendations and the proposed boundary maps are also published. Note that the earlier “Consultation Questions” survey on that page has closed; the live one is “Draft Recommendations Consultation”.
- On paper, with copies available at The Forum, Marlowes, at main reception and at Hemel Hempstead Library.
- By post to Electoral Services (CGR), Dacorum Borough Council, The Forum, Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, HP1 1DN.
Questions can be sent to cgr@dacorum.gov.uk, but the council is explicit that responses cannot be submitted by email, and that it can only accept responses received during the consultation period.
Final recommendations go to Full Council in November 2026, when the community governance order would be made. If a new parish council is created, the earliest it would be elected is May 2027. We will report the outcome.
Development pressure is the backdrop to much of this, and a parish council would be a statutory consultee on it. Our Hemel Hempstead planning page covers the Local Plan inspectors’ findings on Dacorum’s housing targets.
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