Parish Council Meeting Minutes

2nd December 2002

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  Minutes of a Meeting of Ellisfield Parish Council held in
the Memorial Hall on Monday 2nd December 2002 at 7.30 pm

Present: Bill Thompson (Chairman), Phil Self, Tim Sullivan,  Nigel Wilson, Paul Turner (Councillors)

In attendance:   Edna Chilton (Clerk)

1.  Apologies for Absence.            None but the Chairman reported that he had received a letter of resignation from Councillor Wood who was unable to continue due to family commitments.  It was noted that since the vacancy fell within six months of an expected election a bye election could not be claimed.  It was agreed that the Council did not wish to fill the vacancy by co-option.  Deputy Returning Officer to be so informed.

2.  Minutes of the Meeting held on 28th October 2002     Agreed and signed as a true record.

3. Matters Arising from the Minutes.  None.

4. To adopt new codified Financial Standing Orders.

The Clerk had prepared new Financial Standing Orders to take account of the re-allocation of duties and appointment of External Internal Auditor and these had been circulated with explanatory notes prior to the meeting.  Councillor Wilson proposed that: 

Subject to the deletion of explanatory notes the New Financial Standing Orders be adopted as Standing Order Number One and the previous Standing Order Number One be deleted. 

The proposal was seconded by Councillor Sullivan and carried unanimously.

Financial -Standing Order Number One

Bookkeeper’s duties

1. To record all transactions in cash book.
2. To take custody of paying in book and pay in cheques, etc. regularly
3. To receive bank statements.
4. To reconcile cash book with bank statements once a quarter and report any unresolved differences to the RFO.
5. To operate PAYE, etc. if found necessary.
6. To provide printed reports of all transactions - once a quarter to RFO for report to PC

(or report direct to PC with copy to RFO)

1. To provide printed list of payments and receipts - once a quarter to RFO for report to PC.

(or report direct to PC with copy to RFO)

1. At half year to provide printed budget progress report, having made such virements as are authorised, to RFO for report to PC

(or report direct to PC with copy to RFO)

1. To prepare claim for VAT refunds and present to RFO for signature.
2. To prepare financial report for Charity Commissioners re: Allotments
3. At year end:

(a) balance and reconcile cash book and produce such reports and figures as are needed by the RFO to complete the Annual Return form for external audit.

(b) make analysis of payments under ‘Administration’ heading, into individual headings as provided for in budget. i.e. insurance, audit, clerk’s salary, etc.

1. General

To attend, at Parish Council expense, any available training courses which would assist with a wider understanding of the principles of Local Council accounting.

RFO’s duties

1. To retain overall responsibility for financial procedures.
2. To send out any required bills and ensure prompt payment
3. Cheque book:

(1) To retain custody of cheque book, obtain authorisation for payments and prepare cheques for signature by two members.

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(2) To provide schedule of payments made and authorised, to bookkeeper as they happen.  i.e. usually once a month after a meeting.

(3) To pass cheque book to book keeper each quarter to facilitate bank reconciliation

1. To arrange for new mandates for bank etc. on change of councillors.
2. To produce draft budget, in conjunction with Chairman and book keeper, with historical figures provided by book-keeper.
3. To receive any payments which are not automatically credited to bank account and pass to book keeper for prompt paying in and recording.
4. To retain custody of insurance policy.
5. To monitor level of charges made for allotment and burial grounds
6. To negotiate with District Council regarding fees for work carried out on an agency basis.
7. To retain control and custody of the Council’s reserve account book.(Present investment account) and pass it to book keeper for verification at every movement.

Duties of Cheque signatories

1. Where appropriate, to check invoices are correctly calculated and correct amount has been written on cheque and cheque stub.
2. To check that payments have been properly authorised by Council.
3. To sign cheque and initial cheque stub.

Duties of individual Councillors and Council as a whole.

1. To make such Standing Orders as are necessary for the efficient administration of the Council’s financial affairs.
2. To appoint a Responsible Financial Officer.
3. To appoint an External Internal Auditor in accordance with such regulations as may from time to time be in force.
4. To decide upon and set in place any necessary remedial action arising from audit reports.
5. To decide upon, encode and regularly review a Risk Management strategy.
6. To appoint one of its number to act as Internal Internal Auditor to check the reconciliations and proper management of the Council’s affairs each quarter.
7. To make provision for the training of any person employed, whether on a paid or unpaid basis, to administer the Council’s financial affairs.
8. To receive and read such financial reports as are supplied and make enquiries if any which are mentioned above are not supplied in good time and where such reports are provided in advance of a meeting and further information is required, to ask for it in good enough time to allow the RFO to obtain it in time for the meeting.
9. To provide such information or estimates as are necessary for the preparation of the draft budget with sufficient time to spare to allow accurate preparation of the draft budget.

Duties of (Internal) Internal Auditor  (in house)

1. To check that the quarterly reconciliation is arithmetically correct and that all necessary vouchers are present and that the balances in both accounts are as stated.
2. To initial the reconciliations in the cash book to indicate that this has been done.

Duties of (External) Internal Auditor  (independent)

The External Internal Auditor is legally excluded from taking any part in the management of the Parish Council’s financial affairs, therefore, s/he is not expected to give advice on such management.

His/her role is:

1. to report to the council on the adequacy of the systems of financial control and make such suggestions a s/he he feels could be beneficial.
2. to make such checks and reports as are specified in

“Governance and Accountability in Local Councils in England and Wales - A Practitioner’s Guide” 

A copy of this publication and any amendments thereto is to be supplied to the Internal Auditor.

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5.  To receive a report from the Clerk on Administration Matters.

Freedom of Information Act            There had been a letter from HAPTC which appeared to indicate that the details of how we were intending to make information available to the public should be sent with the Form of Declaration.  The Clerk had already sent the Form without such addendum and had received a formal letter from the Information Commissioner to say that they were pleased to advise us that this was an appropriate scheme for our organisation to adopt and that it had been approved from 28th February 2003 to 28th February 2007. After that time we would be obliged to adopt a revised scheme and 5 months notice would be given of this. There was no mention of a need to send details of how the scheme would work in this parish. It would appear that we are able to publish the scheme in the way agreed, i.e. to send out a schedule to all residents and to re-publish in the Annual Report.

From Andrew Hunter, MP            A letter commending the Vital Villages grant programme and offering any assistance needed to obtain such a grant.  Noted.

From B & DBC              To state that traffic management within the rural area of the Borough will from 1st November be undertaken by the Borough Council on behalf of the County Council.   Noted.

From Greystones            a fax asking whether or not the subject of ‘Greystones children’s climbing frames and goalpost’ had been raised with the Parish Council.  The Chairman being unavailable, the Clerk contacted the vice-Chairman to ascertain whether he had heard anything and since neither he nor the Clerk knew anything about the matter, the Clerk replied immediately that the Parish Council had no knowledge of the matter.  Noted.

Consultations

From B & DBC   re: Review of planning obligation and community infrastructure.  No action
                            re: Draft Community Strategy Framework.  No action

The Report was approved.

6. To consider any new Planning Applications and receive an update on current applications

The Clerk provided a written report as follows:

The Rectory
Church Lane.            The Tree Officer has inspected a dangerous ash tree in the grounds of the Rectory and has said that it should be felled.  Since there are many other ash  trees in the vicinity the duty to replace it has been waived.  This means that no formal application was required and therefore there is no reference number,
This is purely for information.
Noted.

7. To set the budget and fix a precept for the financial year 2003/4

In view of the late finish of the budget meeting last year the Chairman proposed that a time limit should be put on this meeting and that any business unfinished at 10.00pm should be deferred and the meeting adjourned.  The proposal was unanimously agreed.

The Volunteer Group felt unable to make a definite commitment to the maintenance of Parish Land and suggested that costs for a contractor should be budgeted to be on the safe side.  It was noted that the Clerk had not had the opportunity to ask for even a ball park figure for this eventuality and that it was likely to be in excess of that quoted previously and advertising and evaluating tenders was a time consuming process.  It was not possible to defer the matter to allow further time for the volunteers to be in a position to commit themselves or for tenders to be invited because of the time scale for sending the precept demand to the Borough Council.  It was decided to allow £2,000.00 and, in the event that the volunteers could not proceed and the contractor costs were more than that the excess would have to be found from reserves.

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There had been no response to advertising either for a new Clerk or an administration assistant and it was agreed that the probable costs of employing a new Clerk should be carried forward into next year but that it was difficult to project the final cost at this stage.

The final budget was approved as follows:

611

Expected income   all estimated

Investment account

Present balance                             3000.14

Precept calculation

Council Tax base = £152.=

8.  To sign the Precept Demand and Application for Limited General Grant to Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council.

This was signed by the chairman, the Clerk and two other Councillors as required.

9. To receive any report and approve any action needed on:

(i)            Lower Common                      The poor state of the goal posts was noted.  An allowance for their refurbishmeent had been made in the budget.

(ii)            Ellisfield Memorial Hall               The takings from the Bazaar, which had a lower attendance than last year were nevertheless up at £1,015.

(iii)            Highways

The state of the drains at the junction of Green Lane and Axford Road had been reported and Mr Lance asked to check on the grips adjacent to the new sumps on Lower Common south side.

Mr Lance moving offices to Basingstoke.

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(iv)            Maintenance of Parish Land and Property            Work was ongoing on obtaining a price for the refurbishment of the fence and seat in the Burial Ground.

(v)            Neighbourhood Watch               The new sign had been erected.  It was reported that a car had been stolen from a locked garage in the village.

(vi)            Health & Safety               Cllr. Self had finished the collation of information for the Risk Assessment and passed it to the Clerk with an outline letter to the consultant.

10.  To discuss any matters which the Chairman considers urgent.  There were none.

The meeting closed at 9.30 pm 

Chairman………………………………………………………….

date…………………………………………………….

There being no members of the public present, there was no Open Forum

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