Loughborough Set to Get Its Own Town Council at Last

Loughborough could finally get its own town council — and a brand new community in south Charnwood could get its first ever parish council — after plans moved to a second stage of public consultation in February 2026. More than 400 people responded to the first round of consultation, with over three quarters of Loughborough respondents backing the creation of a town council.

Charnwood Borough Council voted on 23 February to progress the community governance reviews, moving forward with formal draft proposals for both a Loughborough town council and a new parish council for Broadnook Garden Village, the large new development being built between Birstall and Rothley. The second stage of consultation gives residents, businesses, and local organisations another opportunity to have their say on the detail of the plans before any final decisions are made.

If you want to understand why Loughborough stands alone among major Leicestershire towns in having no town council of its own, the Charnwood local government reorganisation provides important context — the looming abolition of the borough council is precisely what has forced this long-overdue question onto the agenda.

Why Loughborough Has Never Had a Town Council

It is a quirk of Loughborough’s history that virtually every other town and village in Charnwood has its own town or parish council — yet Loughborough, the largest settlement in the borough with a population of around 60,000, has never had one. The borough council has historically performed the functions that a town council would otherwise cover, collecting a special precept for the town and making decisions at borough level.

That arrangement is now under threat. The Government’s local government reorganisation programme will abolish borough and county councils across England, replacing them with new unitary authorities. When Charnwood Borough Council disappears — expected around April 2028 — there will be no guaranteed local tier of government to represent Loughborough’s specific interests within whatever larger unitary structure emerges.

Three competing proposals have been submitted to government for Leicestershire’s reorganisation: one from Leicestershire County Council, one from Leicester City Council, and one from the group of district and borough councils including Charnwood. All three would see the current borough council abolished. Under the districts’ own preferred option, Charnwood would be merged into a northern unitary authority alongside North West Leicestershire, Melton, and Rutland — a body covering a vast area with Loughborough as one of several significant towns competing for attention and resources.

A town council with its own elected councillors, its own budget, and a legal right to be consulted on decisions affecting the town would give Loughborough a permanent local voice regardless of what happens at unitary level.

What the Proposed Town Council Would Look Like

The draft proposals set out by the borough council suggest a Loughborough town council of up to 25 councillors, with wards based on the existing Charnwood Borough Council ward boundaries. The final number of councillors has not yet been fixed — that is one of the points residents are invited to comment on in the second consultation.

What services or assets the new town council would take on has also not been decided. In other towns with recently created or expanded councils, functions have included managing parks and open spaces, running community events, maintaining local amenities, and holding a precept — a slice of council tax — to fund local priorities. In Loughborough’s case, the borough council currently raises a special Loughborough rate. What happens to that money under a unitary authority, and whether a town council would inherit a meaningful budget, is a critical question that remains unanswered.

If approved, the new councils are expected to be operational by 2027 — ahead of the unitary transition in 2028.

Broadnook: A New Village That Needs Its Own Voice

The Broadnook story is different in character but equally significant. Broadnook Garden Village is an entirely new settlement — a 2,000-home development being built on land between Birstall and Rothley, situated off the A6 with the Great Central Railway running to the west. Developers Cora Homes have been building out the site in phases, with more than 50 homes already occupied and hundreds more under construction.

The land currently sits across four existing parishes — Rothley, Thurcaston and Cropston, Birstall, and Wanlip — none of which were designed to represent the interests of a new community of several thousand people on what was previously farmland. The developers themselves approached Charnwood Borough Council to request a community governance review, recognising that the existing arrangements are inadequate for the settlement being created.

The draft proposals suggest a Broadnook parish council of up to 12 councillors, potentially with wards created in the future as the village grows. A Broadnook Community Trust, a charitable body set up in 2023, has been acting as a community body in the interim, but a formal elected parish council would give residents proper democratic representation and a legal standing in planning and development decisions affecting their area.

Our Take: This Is Overdue — But the Detail Matters Enormously

Let’s be honest: the reason Loughborough is only now being asked whether it wants a town council is not because Charnwood Borough Council had a sudden attack of democratic enthusiasm. It is because the borough council is being abolished, and someone finally noticed that Loughborough would be left without any dedicated local representation in the new structure. The community governance review is a defensive measure as much as a proactive one.

That does not make it the wrong thing to do. Quite the opposite. A properly resourced Loughborough town council — one with real money, real powers, and real accountability to local people — could be a genuinely positive development for the town. The question is whether what emerges will be that, or whether it will be a talking shop with a modest budget and no teeth.

The sticking point will be money. A Loughborough town council with 25 councillors but no meaningful precept and no transferred assets would be largely symbolic. Residents already struggling with rising council tax bills are unlikely to welcome a new layer of government that costs them money but delivers little. The borough council needs to be clear and specific about what the town council would actually do, what it would control, and what it would cost.

The 400-plus responses to the first consultation are encouraging. Three quarters of respondents backing the idea is a solid mandate. But it is worth noting that consultations tend to attract people who already have a view — engaged, organised residents who know their way around a council website. The quieter majority in Loughborough, the people who’ve never engaged with local government in their lives, will be the ones most affected when decisions are made about their neighbourhood and they have no obvious local elected body to turn to.

For Broadnook, the case is even clearer. You cannot build a community of 2,000 homes on a greenfield site, fill it with thousands of residents, and expect four existing parishes that never anticipated this growth to adequately represent them. A dedicated parish council is the minimum those residents deserve. The sooner it is in place, the better.

The second consultation is open. The details are on the Charnwood Borough Council website at charnwood.gov.uk/cgr. If you live in Loughborough or in the Birstall-Rothley area, this is your chance to shape what local democracy looks like in your town for the next generation. It would be a shame to leave that to chance.

Have Your Say

Do you think Loughborough should finally have its own town council? And what would you want it to actually do? Let us know in the comments — your views on this are exactly the kind of local perspective that matters most in a consultation like this. If you want to follow how this story develops, sign up for our free updates and we’ll keep you posted at every stage of the process.