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The Latest Minutes and Accounts for Betley Parish Council - A Critique

The latest Minutes and Accounts of Betley Parish council are, as usual, both interesting and questionable. However, too few people show interest, and even fewer questions are asked. But then, given how individuals are treated who do ask questions then that might not be surprising.   When I became a Parish Councillor for Wrinehill, my first observations was that this was a council with few if any policies with which to work/operate, and spend public money.   Thus expenditure appeared whimsical and somewhat individualistic. It was difficult to separate the salary of the Clerk from any re-imbursement/expenditure claimed by the Clerk, who was, seemingly, paying invoices from his own pocket.   No account of hours worked were kept, and neither were the tasks undertaken.   Any attempts to regularise the situation were met with defensive negativity even hostility and a bad press in the Minutes for anyone asking the question or making the request. The issues of the Code...
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Making Mayor-y

  Last week I watched the Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council Mayor- making ceremony.   I also tuned in to the last one, never having witnessed one before. The only idea I had of the process was governed by some historic records which had described how the Mayor should be chosen from the best within the community (women were not included).    But these were earlier and possibly better times. By the 19 th Century the whole procedure appears to have fallen into disrepute.   It was only after a hard-won fight that Joseph Mayer of Thistleberry (whose father, Samuel, became Mayor in 1833) claimed that his father was part of a ‘new regime’.   (Unfortunately, the Minutes of meetings over which his father presided, did not seem to bear this out.) Joseph Mayer went on to produce a pamphlet in 1833   describing these mock ceremonies in unflattering and Swiftian terms, indicating that the closed system needed to change if it was to retain its credibility....
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Trusts, Trustees and Charities

  Staffordshire County Council held its Endowment Charities Meeting to discuss the Annual Accounts for 2024/2025 last week.    Staffordshire County Council acts as a custodian trustee for 13 educational endowment charities.   Part of its responsibilities is to oversee both the administrative and investment aspects of these charities.   One of the key duties includes approving the annual accounts before they are submitted to the Charities Commission.   The allocation of income is delegated to the managing trustees of the respective schools, with County Council Officers ensuring that expenditure is in accordance with the Trustees’ intentions.   In scrutinising the accounts it was noted that three of the charities generated an annual income exceeding £25,000.   Income via interest from the funds invested were noted, and that paid from the COIF Investment Fund amounted to approximately £53,000 annually.   However, expenditure, the Report ...
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Accounting Practice Upgrade or More False Promises?

    The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has been working on improving standards and accounting practices of local councils, particularly parish and small councils. The 2024/25 review shows that 97% of local authorities submitted their Annual Governance and Accountability Returns (AGARs) by the end of September. Whilst two-thirds of councils (67%) received clean, unqualified audit opinions.  However, this also means, that 33% did not – ie one third of all councils.   And although councils might have submitted their returns on time, this does not mean to say that their record was accurate or completely open and transparent.   Thus the study would appear to focus primarily on completion rates rather than on the depth or effectiveness of audit scrutiny. The Report also stated that Auditors also maintained high levels of performance, completing 94% of reviews by the statutory deadline, rising to 96% by year-end.   However, this might be to pla...
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Lifting the Lid Part 7: Betley Parish Council Annual Accounting Process

  The Annual accounts for the Parish have now been prepared and approved by Members.   Between June and July is the period when parishioners can ask to see documents or seek clarification and even raise concerns about expenditure with the internal auditor.   Failing that, the external auditors.   However, the Annual Audits are snap shots of the annual accounts for the PC, the documents submitted to the auditors being chosen by the clerks of councils, their scrutiny ‘light touch’.   Only on occasion might the Auditor ask for more.         Accounting Scrutiny (or not) Last year when the clerk was asked for the contact details of the internal auditor the response was that these were on the PC website.   However, they could not be found.   Should this happen again, the Internal Auditor’s contact details (Davenports Accounting) and not to be confused with Davenports Accountancy (of Manchester) are available at Companies House 09...
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So Much for Elections

  The local elections are now over for Newcastle-under-Lyme.  Perhaps for the last time. Although Labour’s long-standing dominance in parts of North Staffordshire appears to have weakened, the political direction of the past fifteen years reflects a broader pattern of public dissatisfaction rather than straightforward ideological change. Across North Staffordshire, political allegiance has shifted incrementally: from Labour to the Liberal Democrats, via a flirtation of support for UKIP, to Conservative control, and now to a seemingly growing affection for Reform UK.   Whether this represents a settled move to the right or simply frustration with the local political establishment remains problematic.   Either way, it signals a significant loss of public confidence in traditional politics. In some parts of North Staffordshire and South Cheshire, however, longstanding political and social networks appear to remain firmly embedded.  Critics argue that this can c...
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Promises, Promises? Or Administrative Amnesia at Betley Parish Council (A Bird’s eye view of Local Administration)

  Reading the Minutes of Betley Parish Council, one could easily conclude that a peculiar form of collective amnesia pervades the meeting room.   Items raised in one meeting rarely seem to reach any satisfactory conclusion in subsequent ones before being quietly buried beneath the next agenda. Matters drift in, are discussed vaguely, and then disappear into the administrative fog. ·   Administrative Amnesia Many of the issues debated by the Parish Council appear only loosely connected to its actual remit.   Until 2024, the Council seems to have functioned with few, if any, meaningful policies of its own.   When policies finally began to appear, many seemed to be heavily based on policies used by other authorities, with limited obvious adaptation for local circumstances .   The suggestion to make them more suited to Betley was cursorily dismissed.   Although a few positively presidential in tone clauses appear to have been inserted, which, if not...
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