2021 Annual Parish Meeting

Cllr Brian Wilkinson (BW)

Cllr Katie Long (KL)

Malcolm Dodds (MD)

Cllr Rick Miller (RM)

Cllr Rachel Stevenson (RS)

James Leach – Clerk (JL)

Press

James Leach

1

The Chairman welcomed all present.

2

Apologises – None

3

Members of Public – None

4

The minutes from the last APM were agreed and proposed by RS and seconded by MD

5

Matters Arising – There were no matters arising/outstanding. JL had now received the last two Chairman’s Reports and will put them on the new website

ACTION: JL

6

The Chairman’s report was read out.

The Chairman welcomed all present.

This year had been a relatively uneventful year mainly due to the COVID Pandemic. It was also the first APM since 2019 as there was no meeting held in 2020, again due to the pandemic. Face to face meetings did not resume until April this year.

A number of COVID cases had been reported in the Parish, but thankfully there had been no detahs.

There had been a vacant Parish Councillor position and this had been filled by Rick Miller who had made a welcome return.

There had been several planning applications over the last two years all of which had gone through without objection.

There had been no internments over the last two years and as a result income from the Cemetery was considerably lower than previous years. Lionel Fisher had continued to maintain the Cemetery and had done a fantastic job and BW again thanked him for his hard work.

Again, the PC had paid for 2 skips throughout the last 2 years and both had been full to capacity. The PC continued to weigh in any scrap collected and this had helped towards the cost of the skips. Last year was particularly good as the PC had received a large donation of scrap from an Aslackby resident. This had resulted in an excess of income which more than covered the skip cost. At a previous meeting it had been proposed that a donation be made to the Village Hall & the Church. This was unanimously accepted. JL will send this. He will also write a letter of thanks to the resident that donated the scrap.

ACTION: JL

Britten’s had continued to do a fantastic job throughout the year with regards village grass cutting and as a result the PC had taken the decision to retain their services.

A number of Highways faults had been reported to LCC these were mainly potholes and unfortunately a number of these were still outstanding.  

There have been a number of petty crimes over the past two years. A couple of abandoned cars had been reported and had been removed. There had also been a break in at Graby where a number of firearms had been stolen.

Despite receiving a number of complaints in 2019 regarding the new Green Burial site with regards traffic, there had been no issues since it opened and traffic had not impacted on the village,

BW gave thanks to Vice Chairman JP for all his support. BW gave thanks to all Cllrs for their help & support for the past year. He also gave special thanks to JL for doing a sterling job as Parish Clerk.

BW also offered thanks to County Councillor MH. He then went on to say he had been disappointed that the representative from SKDC Cllr P Moseley had not attended any meetings or responded to any emails sent by the Clerk.

The report was adopted and proposed by RS & seconded by JP and the rest of the Councillors who all thanked BW for doing a fantastic job as Chairman.

6

Finance Report

Copies of the financial report were passed round.

There have been some significant reductions in income this year, being:

• Only income for Cemetery over last two years has been £95.00

This has been offset slightly by the reduction in Cemetery maintenance costs of £224.50

The Precept was increased to £4800 this year to offset loss of income and to cover expected increase in outgoings for the next year. i.e. Clerks wage increase.

Other than the above, there are no significant variances to comment on.

The result of this is that cash balances have decreased from the beginning to end of the 2020/21 year, with the 31 March 2019 balance of £9360.32 being £1182.28 lower than the figure at the start of the year.

However due to a slight decrease in outgoings in the previous year reserves are still in a good position but need to be monitored closely. This is mainly as a result of not receiving an up to date invoice for Cemetery maintenance. This will now be received in the next financial year.

JP still needs to do VAT refund claim which he will do in the next month.

ACTION: JP

The closing level of reserves, at around £9598.50, is felt to be reasonable.

Please note that as both our income and expenditure are below £25000 our Parish Council accounts are again exempt from external audit (as last year). The only document to be submitted to the external auditors is therefore an Exemption Certificate, to confirm that the exemption criteria have been met, and that we have approved our exempt status. JP has checked the figures and certificate wording, and confirms that this can be signed as page 3 of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return 2018/19 (AGAR).

As we are exempt from audit there is no audit charge to pay.

JP has prepared the figures for the year to 31.03.20. There have been relatively few transactions in the year, and no unusual items. The figures are also subject to internal audit. JP considers that the internal financial controls we have in place for a Council of our size are adequate. On this basis JP recommends that the Annual Governance and Accountability Return 2020/21 (AGAR) be adopted by the Parish Council.

This was proposed by MD and seconded by RS. The PC unanimously accepted the accounts and thanked JP for his sterling work.

The Internal Audit will be carried out in the next couple of weeks. JP had completed the necessary paperwork. The Audit no longer has to be displayed on the village noticeboard. They are required to be displayed on the PC website so JL will do this once he has received the relevant signed paperwork from JP.

ACTION: JL

JP said the accounts needed to be with the external Auditors by 30th June 2021. He will make sure this is done.

ACTION: JP

JP read out the Governance Statement and checked that the PC was compliant.  JL will put this on Website once done.

ACTION: JL

The Finance report was adopted. Proposed MD and seconded by RS.

These were then signed in accordance with the above at 7.15pm.

The accounts were adopted by KL and seconded by RS. These were then signed off at 7.20pm.  The accounts were approved and signed off by BW and JL.

MD asked what “assets“ were on the accounts. JP responded to say this was the Cemetery.

6

AOB

None

7

There being no other business the meeting was closed at 19.30PM.

8

Date and time of next Annual Parish Meeting will be agreed at a later date.