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13 May 2024
This blog rambles a bit but I'll start with the Annual Parish Meeting last Tuesday.
It was a bit of a non-event. Six councillors attended, one locum Clerk, someone from Chiltern Rangers – and two residents.
The event started 15 minutes late. I thought the Chair was waiting to see if anyone else would turn up but found out later this was not the case (see below).
The Chair gave an address. The Parish Accounts were presented (from which I formally dissociated myself). Cllr Cadwallader gave a talk on open spaces. The representative from Chiltern Rangers gave a talk about Chiltern Rangers. There were a few questions and we all went home.
After the meeting, Council was copied into e-mails from a resident in Naphill saying he believed proper notice for the annual meeting had not been given and therefore the meeting should not have been held.
Notice of an annual parish meeting is required by law to be given at least seven clear days in advance. The locum Clerk said Council had complied with the law by posting a notice on the noticeboard outside the parish council office in Great Kingshill on 30 April.
Apparently, sometime later, a contractor had posted notices on other parish noticeboards - apart from those in Naphill.
The e-mail exchange continued – this time expanding to suggest ways in which the Council could improve communications with residents. And mentioning that the resident had had a conversation with the Chair outside the parish meeting which had presumably caused the 15- minute delay to the meeting.
I think Council should have been informed of the resident’s concerns about the legality of the meeting – but it now seems par for the course not to let Council know what is going on.
Anyway, to go off at a tangent, I was surprised and concerned to learn that Council was paying contractors to put up the notices on the noticeboards in the parish.
For many years, the Clerk has sent out the agenda/minutes to a number of residents who have keys to some of the notice boards. They put notices up. Other notices have been put up by office staff combining this with normal visits to parish land.
Council was not informed about the contracting out of this job which apparently happened last November.
Nor has Council had any invoices for 8 months so it has had no opportunity to scrutinise payments for this work. The locum Clerk has refused to provide any invoices to me except 4 invoices I specifically asked for in January.
Luckily one of these invoices was for the contractor doing this work. So, I was able to find out that it now costs the Council £40 for a contractor to post a notice.
Council and its three Committees meet about 6 times a year i.e. 24 meetings a year. So, it is apparently costing nearly £1000/year to post the agendas on each noticeboard. I say “apparently” because who knows what Council is spending taxpayers’ money on? Certainly, Council doesn’t know.
While I was at it, I noticed that it cost the Council £120 for the contractor to inspect a bus shelter and another £120 to inspect a bench.
How on earth can Council justify these costs?
Talking of invoices, last week a resident asked Cllr Jones, the Chair of HPC, two simple questions by e-mail: -
1. Who is responsible for checking payments against invoices? and
2. Who is responsible for checking invoices against orders?
After what I can only describe as a number of evasive responses from Cllr Jones, I set out what I thought were the answers: -
1. Who is responsible for checking payments against invoices?
The Council or Finance Committee is responsible for checking payments against invoices (HPC's Financial Regulations, paragraph 5.2).
However, neither the Council nor Finance Committee has fulfilled this responsibility for at least the last 8 months.
Who is actually checking payments against invoices?
According to Cllr Jones, after payments have been input to the bank for payment “a councillor looks at the file and checks and authorises". It is not clear what file this councillor is looking at, what they are checking and what they are authorising.
Cllr Jones has declined to say who this councillor is. He referred me to the minutes of the Council’s January meeting – which are irrelevant.
So, I don't know if anyone is actually checking payments against invoices.
2. Who is responsible for checking invoices against orders?
The Responsible Financial Officer is responsible for examining, verifying and certificating all invoices to confirm that the work, goods, or services to which each invoice relates has been received, carried out, examined and represents expenditure previously budgeted for and approved by the Council. (HPC's Financial Regulations paragraph 5.3).
The RFO is responsible for presenting these invoices to Council before Council authorises their payment.
The RFO has not fulfilled this responsibility for at least 8 months. It is unclear whether HPC has a RFO whose appointment is valid and lawful.
Who is actually examining, verifying and certifying invoices etc?
According to the process set out by Cllr Jones, no-one.
When I set this out for the resident, Cllr Jones reminded me that I had to comply with HPC’s Code of Conduct with regard to not bringing the Council into disrepute.
So, when I attempt to help a resident answer two simple question about the Council’s financial management, the Chair intimates that I may be breaching the Code.
I think this is known as gaslighting.
You might be wondering by now what this has got to do with “Have I got News for You”.
Well, last Friday’s edition mentioned the case of David Fairchild, the “Weasenham Whinger”.
Mr Fairchild was a councillor on Weasenham Parish Council before stepping down over a disagreement.
He continued to scrutinise the handling of the council’s accounts, tax payments and its management. He also issues a newsletter of the parish council’s actions.
In 2022, the external auditor upheld 27 of 31 complaints made by Mr Fairchild. They praised Mr Fairchild for his “community spirit”.
The entire parish council resigned forcing Breckland District Council to parachute in three of its district councillors.
Three further councillors joined the parish council and the district councillors left.
Since then, Mr Fairchild has become a magnet for other “whingers” across the country who ask for his advice.
He said "It surprised me to find that Weasenham was not the only case [of parish council mismanagement]. "I’ve been rattling the cage for years but when people were calling to ask, ‘what's your views on this’, I saw how rife it was across the country.”
More recently, he said the new Chair of the parish council is running a “dictatorial leadership”. … They class it as abusive if I say they can’t do their jobs,” he said.
The Council has now approved a new complaints policy which means all Mr Fairchild’s emails go into the Council’s junk file – which is why it was on “Have I got News for You”.
It’s really nice to know I am not the only one reporting on mismanagement at a parish council and not the only one with a Chair with a dictatorial leadership.
I only wish there were a lot more whingers (and there are a few in Hughenden!)
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