Financial overview
The Parish Council has a small precept of £5000 for the financial year 2023/. The Clerk, as the Parish Council's designated Responsible Financial Officer (RFO) manages finances, ensuring payments are made in accordance with agreed procedures.
The Parish Council is mandated to manage funds fairly, transparently and within it's scope of authority. Financial management is an area of PC activity which is subject to an annual risk assessment to ensure our public funds are appropriately protected and managed.
Bank reconciliations are presented at each scheduled meeting to ensure we keep spending on track.
An external auditing body is appointed by the Government. As parish council income/expenditure is <£25,000 per annum, we are not mandated to submit a full report to the external auditors, nonetheless this is undertaken to ensure accurate reporting and transparency. These are overseen by an independent internal auditor
Once the accounts have been signed off by the Parish Council, the Clerk posts a copy of "notice of inspection period for the exercise of public rights" - this is a notice which invites parishioners to examine the accounting information if they so wish. The Clerk is however happy to respond to queries at any time.
How is the money spent?
A copy of the payments book can be found on this website at Financial documents which gives full detail of income and expenditure. In summary the main areas of spend are:
Grass & hedge cutting, tree inspection and tree remedial work, insurance (this extends to Parish assets and parish liabilities), annual inspection of playground, playground maintenance, general parish works, Clerk's remuneration.
A small provision is available for donations to local groups who can demonstrate benefit to the parish. Typically a single donation is £100 or perhaps £200 - previous beneficiaries have included; Lives First Responders, Heydour Parish Hall, Youth Club.