Notice of the Meeting of the Financial Committee to be held on Monday 10th June 2024 at 8:00pm. Meeting Room, Village Hall, School Road, Kelvedon Hatch, Brentwood, Essex. CM15 0DL
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COUNCILLORS ARE RESPECTFULLY SUMMONED TO ATTEND THE ABOVE MEETING TO TRANSACT THE BUSINESS SET OUT BELOW:
Signed by:
Luz Loizou, Parish Clerk & RFO. 4th June 2024
Members of the public are welcome to attend the meeting.
AGENDA
FIN/0624/1 Election of Chairman of the Finance Committee
FIN/0624/2 Acceptance of Apologies for absence.
Motion: To accept the received apologies for absence from Parish Councillors.
FIN/0624/3 Declarations of interest & amendments to the register of members’ interests.
To receive declarations of interest pertaining to matters included in this agenda, whether they be personal and/or prejudicial.
FIN/0624/4 Minutes of the Financial Committee Meeting held on 11th December 2023.
Motion: To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 11th December 2023.
FIN/0624/5 Suspension of the meeting to receive questions and/or comments from members of the public.
FIN/0624/6 Responsible Financial Officer’s Report. Attachment 1
To receive a report from the Responsible Financial Officer.
FIN/0624/7 Review of Budget 2024-25 – as per June 2024 Attachment 2
FIN/0624/8 Review and adopt new Financial Regulations – Attachment 3
FIN/0624/9 Review of Regular Payment Schedule – Attachment 4
Motion: To authorise Regular Payments as per Financial Regulations 64.1
FIN/0624/10 Information items from members.
Matters for information only with a view to placing on a future agenda.
Attachment 1
Responsible Financial Officer’s Report
Parish Council’s accounts are in a good and safe financial position. There is enough money in the 100 days and current accounts to ensure that everything carries on working as planned.
For this year we are running over the budget with a few projects:
Noticeboards as we had £4,000 earmarked reserves and £750 for the year’s budget and the 3 new ones with installation will finish costing approx. £7,468 (£5960 noticeboards + £1508 installation).
Play Area – maintenance works approx. £20,000. Play Area Equipment £5,000 and Maintenance £11,000. Earmarked Reserves for emergency repairs is £3000. We also had £1,200 earmarked to replace the bench in Swan Pond and this might be done
On the other hand, we will finish spending less money than budgeted for the office space as we are still to start this contract.
Same for the SID, there are £10,000 on earmarked reserves and it might only cost half of it. Bus shelters maintenance £5,000 and there might be around £2,000 spare.
Overall, we are very likely to finish the year on target with the budget.
I would like to say that I am having doubts about renting the room from the Village Hall. With other people having access to it and the storage room it might be that we are held responsible for anything that goes wrong. At home I have a proper desk and chair (I really dont want to have to use the tables/chairs at the VH) and I could move the boxes to my garage. The use of a PO Box seems to be the most cost-effective option. Royal Mail costs £353.50 per year. There has been nothing but “barriers and delays” with this and we have not even started to attempt to install internet, I can only imagine what would happen then.
Internal Audit came back with good results, only a couple of recommendations:
- Ensure that the AGAR is reviewed in a meeting and minuted.
- The Council should ensure that the dates on the 2024 Notice provides the required 30 days inspection period. The Council should enter ‘No’ on Section 1, Assertion 4.
Attachment 4
Regular Payments Schedule:
Monthly:
Miss K. Saunders – Litter picking and bus shelters maintenance
PW Commercial – Tetra pack recycling
S-Type Security – Security
Kelhatch Press – Village Newsletter printing
Village News editor
Wages
HMRC
Pension
Every Quarter
War Memorial – Swan Pond & Play Area maintenance
BBC – Rubbish collection
Payroll Service
Yearly
Kelvedon Hatch Village Hall Trust – Poors Field use
Kelvedon Hatch Football Club – Poors Field maintenance
Insurance
Internal Audit
External Audit
EALC – NALC – SLCC – BBCPA memberships
Website Hosting
Website Maintenance