In the United Kingdom, town councils are civil parish councils, where the civil parish is a town. Civil parishes are the lowest level of elected governance, under the district and county level.

Any parish can unilaterally decide to describe itself as a town.

The chairman of a town council is usually called a Town Mayor, the alternative is rarely found.

The term 'Town Mayor' is used as opposed to simply 'Mayor', which means the mayor of a borough or a city.