Council Meeting – 24th June 2024
Agenda
1) To receive Apologies for Absence
2) To receive any Declarations of Personal or Personal and Prejudicial Interests
3) To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 13th May 2024
4) Governance
a) To receive the Internal Audit report
b) To complete section 1 of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR)
c) To complete section 2 of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR)
d) To approve the redaction of signatures on the AGAR and other documents on the website.
e) To note the period for the exercise of public rights will run from 26th June 2024 – 6th August 2024
f) To agree the application for a Multi Pay Card with Lloyds Bank through Unity Trust Bank
g) To agree the following payments and any other payment requests received since the publication of the Agenda:
Invoice Date Payee Amount
18/05/2024 Gallagher/Insurance £ 1,034.73
22/04/2024 OALC/Membership £ 96.00
5) To consider the proposal to move the website to Parish Online with a ‘gov.uk’ domain to include emails for Clerk and Councillors at £420.00 per year (first year cost £320)
6) To consider the proposal to take out a Parish Online Mapping subscription.
7) To note matters raised by members of the Council.
8) Date of next meeting:
To confirm the date of the next Parish Council Meeting, which is scheduled for 7.30 p.m. on Monday 8th July 2024 at Shippon Church Hall.
Minutes
Minutes of St Helen Without Parish Council Meeting
held on Monday 24th June 2024 at 7.30 p.m. at The Prince of Wales, Shippon
Present: Cllr. M. Page (Chair), Cllr D. Churchouse, Cllr M. Littleboy, Cllr M Rusby, Cllr S Rusby
Absent: Cllr R. Bahu, Cllr N. Benchiba-Savenius,
Also in attendance: W Bates (Clerk),
1. To receive Apologies for Absence – Cllr R. Bahu and Cllr N. Benchiba-Savenius
2. To receive any Declarations of Personal or Personal and Prejudicial Interests – none
3. To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 13th May 2024
4. Governance
a. To receive the Internal Audit report – The following observations were made in response to the Internal Audit report:
a.i. Section A all bank reconciliations are done with sight of the bank statements as well as the cash book. That work was done by Cllr Churchouse as the appointed Councillor not by the finance sub committee. The June 23 bank reconciliation was done on 02/08/2023.
a.ii. Section B Financial regulations and Standing Orders based on the latest NALC templates were reviewed and adopted at our meeting on 13th May and will be minuted.
a.iii. During the latter part of the period under audit following the resignation of our Clerk payments, minuting and all other administrative functions were undertaken by the Chair, assisted as appropriate by Councillors. All payments were approved at full council and quotes obtained where required but not necessarily minuted. The appointment of a new, fully qualified, Clerk will ensure full adherence to recording details.
a.iv. The Council is now applying for a debit card.
a.v. Section C Owing to the imminent approach of the insurance renewal date and the fact that we had one year left of a three year contract with our current insurance provider the Council decided at its meeting on 13th May 2024 to continue with the current provider and the existing risk assessment. This will be minuted.
a.vi. The council is currently considering acquiring an online mapping package that will include asset mapping, valuation and risk assessment.
a.vii. (Wendy to check with insurers on frequency of inspections required.) Until a year ago the only inspection undertaken was the annual one by RoSPA .
a.viii. Section D The Council has traditionally held Committee meetings immediately prior to Full Council meetings. All councillors are present for both. The precept set following the in depth review by Committee was considered (although not minuted) to have been resolved by the Full Council. We are currently reviewing our use of Committees and will ensure full compliance in the future.
a.ix. (Wendy to prepare and present a reserves policy)
a.x. Section E Noted
a.xi. Section F Not applicable
a.xii. Section G The HMRC fee of £100 levied on 30/10/2023 was revoked following an appeal by the Chair. (Wendy to ascertain that this has been refunded).
a.xiii. (Wendy to ensure registration with the Pension Regulator is confirmed by the deadline date of 6th August). Although our previous Clerk had always declined a pension registration if this fact was required by and reported to the Regulator.
a.xiv. Our Clerk will ensure that ‘home allowance’ is recorded under staff costs in future.
a.xv. Section H,I,J & K Noted – the quarterly bank recs were carried out by Cllr Churchouse as the appointed Councillor to review finances quarterly.
a.xvi. Section L The Publication Policy was indeed approved in March 2024. The Council is reviewing its website which we acknowledge falls short of current and proposed accessibility standards as a matter of urgency.
a.xvii. Section M,N,O Noted
a.xviii. Other matters Noted
a.xix. The payment of £38.99 was, as stated, for a leaving gift for our previous Clerk. If necessary the Chair will refund this amount to the Council
a.xx. Storage accommodation for documents currently held at the home of our previous Clerk has been identified in the WADs Centre. Chairman/Clerk to facilitate relocation.
a.xxi. As noted under Section L above the Council is conducting an urgent review of its website, including the provision of Council email addresses, which will address all the concerns noted in the Auditor’s report.
a.xxii. Following the resignation of our former Clerk our Chair sought advice from OALC and took on the role of both Proper Officer and RFO (assisted in the latter by Cllr Churchouse our independent financial overseer). It is acknowledged that this was not formally announced or promulgated.
b. To complete section 1 of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) – the statements on section 1 were reviewed and all were completed as “yes”. It was resolved to approve this.
c. To complete section 2 of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) – it was resolved to approve section 2 of the AGAR.
d. To approve the redaction of signatures on the AGAR and other documents on the website -it was approved to approve the redaction of signatures.
e. To note the period for the exercise of public rights will run from 26th June 2024 – 6th August 2024; the exercise of public rights was approved and the notices were provided for display on the noticeboards.
f. To agree the application for a Multi Pay Card with Lloyds Bank through Unity Trust Bank – it was approved to apply for a Multi Pay Card.
g. To agree the following payments and any other payment requests received since the publication of the Agenda:
Ref Invoice Date Payee Amount Method
b1 18/05/2024 Gallagher/Insurance £ 1,034.73 bacs
b2 22/04/2024 OALC/Training – Talking Tables £ 96.00 bacs
b3 04/06/2024 Deborah O’Brien £ 160.00 bacs
b4 31/05/2024 Clerk Salary/Month 2 £ 469.43 bacs
b5 30/06/2024 Clerk Salary/Month 3 £ 469.43 bacs
b6 30/06/2024 Nest/Month 2&3 £ 138.72 bacs
b7 30/06/2024 HMRC/PAYE&NI £ 230.80 bacs
b8 30/04/2024 BGG/Grass Cutting £ 1,146.60 bacs
5. To consider the proposal to move the website to Parish Online with a ‘gov.uk’ domain to include emails for Clerk and Councillors at £420.00 per year (first year cost £320) – it was resolved to approve the Parish Online website subscription.
6. To consider the proposal to take out a Parish Online Mapping subscription – it was agreed to take out the Parish Online Mapping Subscription.
7. To note matters raised by members of the Council – Cllr Littleboy raised the path clearance at the back of the Recreation Ground.
8. Date of next meeting:
To confirm the date of the next Parish Council Meeting, which is scheduled for 7.30 p.m. on Monday 8th July 2024 in the Music Room, Cothill School. Committee Meetings will commence at 07:00pm
The meeting closed at: 11:10am
