Blackford and Compton Pauncefoot

Blackford and Compton Pauncefoot is a civil parish in Somerset, England.

The parish covers the villages of Blackford and Compton Pauncefoot.

The parish has no parish council and has a Parish Meeting which has limited responsibility for local issues, including setting an annual precept (local rate) to cover very limited permitted expenditure (basically minimal operating expenses and contribution to burial authority) and producing annual accounts for public scrutiny. The parish meeting helps evaluate local planning applications and works with the local police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic. The parish meeting's role also includes liaising with the district council over projects for the maintenance and repair of parish facilities, as well as consulting with the district council on the maintenance, repair, and improvement of highways, drainage, footpaths, public transport, and street cleaning. Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also matters that the parish meeting has a say on but no formal responsibility.

The village falls within the Non-metropolitan district of South Somerset, which was formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, having previously been part of Wincanton Rural District, which is responsible for local planning and building control, local roads, council housing, environmental health, markets and fairs, refuse collection and recycling, cemeteries and crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism.

Somerset County Council is responsible for running the largest and most expensive local services such as education, social services, libraries, major roads (except trunk routes such as the A303 which is the responsibility of the Highways Agency), public transport, policing and fire services, trading standards, waste disposal and strategic planning.

It is also part of the Somerton and Frome, a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election, and part of the South West England constituency of the European Parliament which elects seven MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.