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Clerk’s Report May 2024

Parish Clerk Report for 20th May 2024

Completed Actions

Copies of all letters and emails will be available to view at the meeting.

  • I have forwarded various emails to the councillors and deleted others. My thanks are due to Cllr Pike for monitoring my emails while I was away and forwarding or summarising some of them for the other councillors.
  • Okehampton Hospital – Cllr Christine Marsh of Okehampton Town Council wrote to clarify that recent press reports that the kitchen had been removed were incorrect, it had been removed in 2017. On 12th April over 160 people attended a public meeting, there was no further action.
  • I have written to the Dartmoor National Park Planning Authority to complain about the mis-classification of a discharge of conditions application as Okehampton Hamlets, and responded to a letter from a neighbour of Burl, Skaigh Lane regarding uncertainties on the planning there. Cllr Pike had circulated details of the Certificate of Lawfulness that has been submitted for Burl, but the council is not invited to comment on this sort of application, as it is a matter of legal decision. They have corrected their mistake.
  • I have opened a savings account and deposited £3,600 in it at 1.3% interest.
  • The remittance advice for the precept payment still had Kate’s address on it, even though it had my name and the new email address! I have written to correct it.
  • U3A (University of the Third Age) sent a poster with details of their organisation, which might be of interest to some residents; I have put it on the Village Hall noticeboard.
  • The Commoners have informed us that they will be organising a Beacon for D-Day on June 6th, but they are currently waiting for permission from Natural England and the Duchy of Cornwall
  • I laminated the posters for the Annual Parish Meeting, after Michael had signed them and they were put up around the village. I liaised with the speakers and sent out agendas.
  • I delivered the completed 2023/24 accounts to Chris Walpole, our Internal Auditor. These were sent out to the Council back in mid-April. Cllr Pike checked them and found one minor error, which was corrected before passing to Chris. Chris has completed the Internal Audit form and returned the accounts with no problems.
  • I have liaised with Josh, Neighbourhood Highways Officer, regarding the road closure and the new village sign. I have summarised the designs that he sent me for the Councillors to make a decision.
  • I have finally succeeded in removing Paul Boyce and Simon Hill from the bank account, and adding Cllrs Grubb and Hosegood to the account. Cllr Pike authorised the mandate change after some to-ing and fro-ing with the bank.

Website

I have added the following posts and pages:

  • Minutes and Documents for 11th March meeting
  • Road Closure Information Updates
  • Agendas for 29th April meeting
  • Minutes and Documents for 29th April meeting, including typing up reports.

Agenda Items

021 Internal Audit

Since I took over as Clerk, I have followed the format of accounts produced by previous clerks. There are many repetitive sheets, which all show the same items. Cllr Pike suggested that we cut out some of the sheets for next time. I consulted with Chris Walpole, as our Internal Auditor, and he agreed that there was no need for all the different viewpoints. These accounts are not stipulated.

We therefore propose to stop producing:

  • Budget Reserves – the main figures are shown on the summary page
  • Current Account (and Savings Account) – these duplicate the statements
  • General Reserves – this duplicates all but a few of the expenditure transactions

This would leave us with:

  • Summary
  • Receipts and Payments (known as the cashbook)
  • Ear-Marked Reserves

I would like to suggest that the Receipts and Payments sheet is changed to combine the receipts and payments into a single list with receipts and payments columns, this would enable it to show a running total of the reserves and bank accounts. This is the way that Sticklepath Parish Council do it, and they are audited by qualified Internal Auditors, with Clerk/RFO experience. It would also enable faster bank reconciliation.

There is also the Revenue Budget, which we create in January in order to set our precept, and review every six months.

022 AGAR

The Annual Governance and Accountability Return is required by law and follows a specified format:

  1. *AGAR Certificate of Exemption- This confirms that our council does not have expenditure or income above £25,000, and therefore we are exempt from an External Audit.
  2. AGAR Internal Audit Form – This is the form that Chris has signed as part of his audit.
  3. *AGAR Annual Governance Statement – This is where the Council confirm that they do all the things necessary for the correct running of the Council. Councillors should read through and satisfy themselves that we have done them.
  4. *AGAR Accounting Statements – This compares the figures for last year and this year under various categories.
  5. Variances Form – This pro-forma requires explanations where the figures in the Accounting Statements vary from the previous year within specified guidelines.
  6. Notice of Public Rights – This is a public notice which has to be displayed on the noticeboard and website to ensure that the public are able to inspect our accounts and verify that they are correct and lawful.
  7. Bank Reconciliation – This is to confirm that the amount in the bank accounts matches the accounts.
  8. List of Transactions over £100 – This is basically an excerpt from the Receipts and Payments. Since we have so few transactions, I tend to just display them all!

Those marked with an asterisk are the documents that Cllr Ash will be signing in the meeting on behalf of the Council.

026 Rural Village Service Group

I had joined a Rural Village Services Group on behalf of the Council. It is part of the Rural Services Network. Although there have been newsletters about rural news stories, there has been nothing that could really benefit Belstone. The group are now introducing a membership fee of £50 per annum so I have resigned our membership. After our resignation I was contacted to ask if the Council would consider a shared membership with Sticklepath, I agreed to put it forward to the Council.

029 Risk Register

I have reviewed the Risk Register. I think we need to make a change to Risk 9 Staff, which also applies to Risk 12. It mentioned Cllr Hill as being able to access the emails and data drive, to ensure security and continuation. Since Simon has left the Council, I am the only person with Admin permissions on the emails and data drive. I think it is important that we appoint a Vice-Chair who can be given an admin role on these, and will be able to access the records should I die suddenly! Since I will need an Annual Assessment in July, that person should also be in place to do that. We have managed without a Vice-Chair since last November, when Simon stepped down from the role, but I think this should be seriously considered. I apologise to Cllr Ash that I had not been able to discuss this with him prior to sending these documents out, but I had not reviewed the Risk Register until now.

030 Items for Next Meeting

The Financial Regulations are due to be reviewed at the next meeting, they should really have been reviewed at this Annual Meeting. However, as those of you who receive the DALC newsletter will be aware, there is a new mandatory version out, so it will not be a quick job to merge the new version with our existing one and ensure that the correct bits are included. https://devonalc.org.uk/news/nalc-model-financial-regulations-2024/ (requires DALC login to read, which any Councillor can apply for individually, or I can supply a copy). I would be grateful if a Councillor could assist me in this task, and/or that I could be paid some overtime to do it. Again, I apologise for the lack of prior consultation, but the agenda publication deadline is upon me!

The Asset Register will also need to be reviewed, so our assets should be inspected before the next meeting. https://belstonevillage.net/parish-council-records/belstone-parish-council-asset-register/

Sally Fullwood
Belstone Parish Clerk