Minutes of the Finance
Meeting held at 5.30 pm on 27th October 2010 in the Reading Room
Present:
Councillors: G Moody, D Batten & J Hill (RFO)
Apologies:
S
Churchill
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ACTION |
1. Declarations of Interest
None
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2. Members of the F&GP
A
new Councillor needs to be opted on to this Committee following the
resignation of Peter Dutton
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GM |
3. Minutes of Last Meeting
The minutes of the
meeting of 19th July 2010 were agreed and signed by the Chairman
of the Finance and General Committee as a true record. |
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4. Matters arising
The RR deeds: these
are held by High income account:
although higher interest accounts are available they are not cost effective
nor do they offer the required flexibility so the F&GP do not recommend
changing. Work to the west of
Southover allotments: before any work is undertaken we need to wait until the
National Trust has consulted with the tenant farmer on the adjacent land ref
part of that land being made available for allotments. AGM: the F&GP
recommend that this will be on 14th May 2011 with a PC meeting
being held 30 minutes before the AGM to approve the accounts. Internal Audit for
this year: this was discussed at the September meeting of the PC. |
GM GM |
5. Financial Report
The external audit report was
distributed to all Councillors before the F&GP meeting. There are 2 areas
that the auditor has commented on. 1.
An
internal auditor assessment was not carried out following the audit of the
2008/9 accounts. This has been
completed for the 2009/10 audit and has been distributed to all Councillors. 2.
Donations
to sporting activities were recorded as approved under S137 powers, but these
should have been approved under S19 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous
Provisions) Act 1976. S137 should be
used only if no other powers are available, and the Council should check the
position before using S137. The F&GP recommend that the
annual return is approved by the PC and that the external auditor’s recommendations
are implemented. The internal audit assessment
was reviewed and it was recommended that the PC should adopt this appraisal. The Committee then studied the
analysis on expenditure to date and known commitments. This is all in order.
Some repairs to the play ground are required but this Committee needs to
investigate what options are available for safety matting underneath the
roundabout and swings. Other maintenance around the village maybe required
but specifications need to be established before any tenders are requested. The copier is around 10 years
old. Concord Copiers who look after the copier can agree to a new contract on
existing terms of 1.158p per copy but it maybe impossible to get replacement parts
in the future. When this happens the PC will need to consider its options. The RFO has investigated the
cost of electricity but there are insufficient accurate meter readings over
the last 18 month to make a sensible decision as to whether it would be worth
switching suppliers/ It was agreed
that this would be studied over the next year to give time for accurate
readings to be collected. The Post Office insurance cost
is high, this is not renewed until February, and alternative quotes will be
sought nearer the renewal date. The draft budget for 2011/12
was reviewed item by item and it was agreed to recommend that the Precept
should be £22,700. This would show a YOY increase of just under
6%, but as the budget includes additional provisions relating to the library this
does not seem unreasonable. |
ACTION GM GM GM RFO RFO GM |
6.
Grants
The PC had agreed to give the
Village Hall Trust the amount it needed in order for the Trust to obtain a
far larger grant for the refurbishment of the hall. The PC had approved a
grant of £1,250, being 5% of an estimated cost of £25,000. Copies of invoices etc had been received
from the Chairman of the VH Committee and showed that more than the estimated
£25,000 had been spent to date. It was
therefore agreed to recommend to the PC that the grant of £1,250 should be
paid. The request from the Bridport
Fencing Association was reviewed but it
was not agreed to recommend a grant since only 9 out of 27 of its members reside
in Burton Bradstock No other requests had been
received at this time 7.
Standing
Orders
A new set of “model”
standing orders has been issued by the DAPTC, Councillor Moody has checked
these against the current ones and many changes recommended from our current
ones. These together with the Financial
Regulations will be reviewed over the forthcoming months. |
ACTION GM GM GM |
8.
Risk
Assessment
The playground annual
inspection report has been issued and action is being taken to repair those
items identified in the report. The
report did not consider any items as urgent. The weekly inspections are
continuing but it was agreed that the Clerk should file these in the RR. This
Committee to monitor progress. Back up of PCs - the
RFO to discuss with the Clerk. Councillor Moody has
requested that: 1.
The
Clerk identifies what confidential information the PC has and ensures that
this is stored in locked cabinets. 2.
The
Clerk identifies the amount of key
documents the PC has to establish if it is necessary to purchase a fireproof
cabinet or to request that these documents are stored at the solicitors Councillor Moody to
follow up. Employment contracts
– there are only 2 employees now. It was agreed that these would be reviewed at
the next F&GP meeting. Tenders – in
accordance with current Financial Regulations there should be an approved
list of contractors. This matter is on the agenda for the November PC
meeting. |
GM RFO Clerk Clerk GM RFO/GM ACTION |
9.
Correspondence
None |
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10. AOB
None |
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11. Date of Next Meeting
6.00 PM 26th
January 2011 The Risk Assessment
Audit would be included as an agenda
items for the next meeting |
RFO |
12. Democratic Half Hour
There were no members of the
public were present. Meeting closed at 18.57 |
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