Introducing parish councils in London would lead to extremism, London Councils chairman, Merrick Cockell, has warned.
In an article in The MJ this week, the Kensington & Chelsea RLBC leader says: ‘Parish councils could provide another avenue for extremist groups to try to split a community along racial or religious lines.'
And he says the danger is that better-off parishes will ‘seek to separate themselves from the problems of the wider community'. He adds that although councils will have powers in the current Local Government Bill to decide about new parishes, there is still the threat of legal challenge.