From Northampton Town Council, the largest in England with 95,000 electors, to Althorp Parish Meeting which has nine electors on the estate where Princess Diana was raised, Northants CALC works with a range of civil local authorities.

Its role is to bridge the gap between parish and town councils and the larger local authorities by offering day-to-day advice and support, training for clerks and councillors and representation and lobbying at a higher level when needed.

The organisation has banked with Unity for 15 years.

Danny Moody, CEO, said: “Parish councils are specialist organisations that require multiple authority payment controls and signatory management and this is what makes Unity stand out from other banks.

“Unity understands how we operate and listens to what we need. It understands our pinch points and works to solve them. That is a brilliant approach and something the High Street banks have never done.

“A clerk might only be contracted to work five hours a week and they don’t have time to spend hours on the phone to a bank.

“It’s very straightforward with Unity.

“Most of the banking can be done online and if you have a problem, you can phone the team and they’re always helpful and quick. I don’t know why there’s a parish council in England not banking with Unity.

“The fact that Unity is a community focussed specialist bank with good ethics and morals is the icing on the cake.”

Impact:

While unitary authorities are responsible for providing a range of public services such as education and social care, parish and town councils play a crucial role in representing electors at grassroots level.

Danny said: “The gap geographically and culturally between a little village or town and a big unitary council area is massive.

“Local councils look after non-statutory, discretionary, local government services and the sort of things that the bigger councils don’t have the luxury of focussing on anymore because the areas they cover are so vast.

“Imagine a place that is unparished; who is making the decisions on planning applications in that area? Who will represent the community if there’s an issue with the local sewage system? Who makes sure there’s enough street lighting?

“Every community needs some kind of community governance. Nobody cares more about a planning application in a small village than the village parish council.”