April 2024 Minutes EOM (29th)
North Thoresby, Grainsby & Waithe Parish Council
North Thoresby Village Hall, The Square, North Thoresby, DN36 5QL
Minutes of Extrordinary Meeting
29 April 2024
NOTE: These minutes are somewhat longer and in more detail to those of a standard meeting. It was agreed that more detail should be recorded due to the level of work that has been undertaken.
1. Chair’s Welcome
a. The meeting will be recorded.
b. Safety announcement.
c. The meeting minutes to be prepared from the recording.
2. Apologies for Absence – All Council members were present. There were two members of the public in attendance.
3. Declarations of Interest
a. Non recorded.
b. No dispensations recorded.
4. Village Hall Hot Water and Electrics
a. Fire Health and Safety Report
A full Fire Health and Safety Survey has been completed 29 April. The report will be available at the end of the week. The hall has no fire alarm. Something needs to be implemented quickly to comply with normal public operating standards. As a minimum, there needs to be sensors in every room.
Once completed, the report will list what we need to do and will identify priorities and timelines. Cllr Orrill to follow up and obtain full specifications for required systems for the Council to discuss at the next meeting.
The work will need to be completed by third party contractors and must be certified. Councillor Orrill will identify three suppliers to provide specifications and quotations.
b. Hot Water
Hot water – To cover the bathrooms and the kitchen. Councillors Orrill and Goodwin have received specifications and quotes covering different methods. Electric heaters and battery operated. The most effective method 75l hot water mains pressure. All existing pipework can be used. A full spec to be drawn up but allocation of £2000.00 for the job to be completed. The battery method is a more modern way forward and will save money in the long run.
Proposal to allocate £2000.00 to provide hot water throughout the building was approved unanimously. Cllr Goodwin to action.
c. Emergency Lighting
Emergency lights now installed to specification, we now comply with regulations. The old lights by passed proper electrical installation. Actioned by Cllr Goodwin
d. Compliance with Music License
In order to comply with our music and performance licence, it was necessary to upgrade the electrical sockets to RDC compliance. Work completed. Actioned by Cllr Goodwin
e. Oil Boiler - We need to find the service records for the oil boiler and organise a service. Action Cllr Goodwin
5. Finance Update and Unity Access
a. The Finance update was delivered by the Locum Clerk.
b. We started from a position of zero information, no invoices, no bank statements or electronic assets.
c. We have managed to access the Parish Council laptop, despite not having the password.
d. The Locum clerk has provided us with a Finance Excel workbook, that contains the rebuilt finance records. We will continue to use this as our finance system.
e. A number of issues were identified, these have been resolved in order to balance against.
f. Everything has been built from the ground up, historical data has been sought from suppliers.
g. There are a number of questionable entries that are still being investigated.
h. The schedule of payments was approved at the meeting. A copy has been published to the website.
i. Monies have been paid out for services that should have been cancelled, such as the BT contract. There have been under and over payments to the bank creating imbalance.
j. A village hall diary workbook managed by the VHC shows a substantial amount of cash that has not been balanced. It was agreed that large amounts of money should not be kept in the hall and a process was agreed where any cash received would be placed in an envelope with details of the deposit/invoice and passed to the clerk to deposit.
k. It was agreed to hold a small petty cash float of no more than £100. It is recognised that a proper process needs to be given to the Caretaker so he is able to manage cash transactions easily. A decision had been made in early 2023 for a cashless system to be implemented, however, some Village Hall users have been unable to comply. Previously, the 2023 audit had identified the handling of cash as a weakness. a council member to go through the process again with the Village Hall Caretaker. Re-instigate use of credit card machine.
l. It was agreed that this is a high-risk area and cash receipts must be reduced.
m. Assets Register Policy - It was agreed that all assets under £200.00 to be written off. It was agreed that items would only be added to the assets register if they are above £200.00 in value.
n. Historical Paperwork – The Locum Clerk has contacted all known suppliers and asked them to reissue invoices. There are some items, specifically payments to the ex-clerk and some ex-councillors where it is unlikely we will be able to secure copy paperwork and identify the exact nature of these payments.
o. The Locum clerk reported that as invoices and receipts had not been provided, we are unable to claim back VAT. This may be seen as a failure on this years audit and may be identified on the AGAR.
p. The Locum Clark took the Councillors through each section of the workbook. It was agreed that a monthly summary of the sheets should be made available on the website so all parishioners have access to the accounts.
q. Pay awards were processed in December showing a high wage bill. These had been backdated to April. This is a usual occurrence.
r. Payroll. It is not standard practice to pay employees by standing order. Whilst there must be a contingency in place to ensure staff are paid on time, it is necessary to approve salary payments monthly and include them on the payments schedule. Standing order bank payment for salaries is seen by organisations such as LALC as bad practice.
s. Because of ongoing bank standing orders that were unable to be cancelled, payments continued to be made to an ex employee for the months of February and March. However, most of the overpayment has been returned, but a small shortfall still remains.
t. Please refer to the schedule of payments for details on late payments.
u. Schedule of payments - A schedule of payments was presented to the council. Each was agreed to be paid once we are able to enter them into the bank
v. Unity Access – We are still awaiting an in-putter to be approved. We have two signatories. It was agreed to add an additional signatory. The bank had a batch of faulty pin numbers issued, leading to a delay.
w. Due to the expenses incurred owing to the toilet block remaining unused, some discussion took place over what is required to open them up again. This needs to go onto the jobs list and be allocated to someone to investigate.
x. Business Contingency Reserves - The council must set aside around £10,000 for reserves (approx. three months operational costs plus maintenance contingency). Previously, there had been a play park budget of £6,000 with an additional commitment of £1500.00 per year. This would allow the council to replace equipment as required. However, it would seem that this figure is unaccounted for resulting in a false view of monies available. It also needs noting that monies need reserving for election and trees maintenance.
y. The village hall is running at an operational loss. It cannot continue to run at around an annual loss of £8000.00.
z. The Council thanked the Locum Clerk for his outstanding work in rebuilding the Parish Councils finances. It puts us in a good position for the upcoming audit and AGAR submission.
6. Other Matters Arising.
a. Cllr Willerton has been unable to access emails.
b. The Caretaker has signed his employment contract.
7. The next meeting will be as normal on 3 June.