Parish Council Finances - January 2019
At the Parish Council meeting on 15th January, the Parish Clerk should have presented the 2019/20 budget (Financial Regulations 3) but he didn't. He said there is a serious financial situation largely due to the grant of £2,900 paid to the village hall committee in 2017/18 for the repair to the village hall ceiling, the cost of the election in May of £1,258 and felling the lime tree at a cost of £620 (including the tree report).
The village hall committee now claim had not been aware of the impact on Parish Council funds at that mob-rule Haldon Hotel meeting on 3/1/2018. The VH confirmed then they had £7,681 in their account; the PC said it had £5,945. The VH request for £3,400 from the PC was just affordable, albeit somewhat unreasonable in the overall financial circumstances.
The VH committee has now agreed to pay back £1,450 to the Parish Council to avoid them going bust, the new PC having spent so much this year, £1,260 on extras, not taking into account the £2,000? for the unfunded defibrillator(s). The £500 for their silly web site didn't help!
Also see this about finances.
And this about Parish Clerk costs.
This council and finance simply do not go together!
The village hall committee now claim had not been aware of the impact on Parish Council funds at that mob-rule Haldon Hotel meeting on 3/1/2018. The VH confirmed then they had £7,681 in their account; the PC said it had £5,945. The VH request for £3,400 from the PC was just affordable, albeit somewhat unreasonable in the overall financial circumstances.
The VH committee has now agreed to pay back £1,450 to the Parish Council to avoid them going bust, the new PC having spent so much this year, £1,260 on extras, not taking into account the £2,000? for the unfunded defibrillator(s). The £500 for their silly web site didn't help!
Also see this about finances.
And this about Parish Clerk costs.
This council and finance simply do not go together!
There will be an election in May this coming year. The Chairman has written :-
Whilst it is absolutely the democratic right of our parishioners to request elections whenever there is a vacancy on the Parish Council, this needs to be balanced and understood in the context that the cost has an impact on all our householders through subsequent and necessary precept rises to pay for it.
This is a totally unacceptable and threatening way to support (undermine?) democracy! It makes obvious that if there is not a vacancy on the council, the PC does not expect any person to challenge via an election to be elected on to the PC. Talk about the "closed shop"? The Clerk hasn't even included the full cost of an election in the budget (if such a thing as a budget exists).
Whilst it is absolutely the democratic right of our parishioners to request elections whenever there is a vacancy on the Parish Council, this needs to be balanced and understood in the context that the cost has an impact on all our householders through subsequent and necessary precept rises to pay for it.
This is a totally unacceptable and threatening way to support (undermine?) democracy! It makes obvious that if there is not a vacancy on the council, the PC does not expect any person to challenge via an election to be elected on to the PC. Talk about the "closed shop"? The Clerk hasn't even included the full cost of an election in the budget (if such a thing as a budget exists).