About Wrinehill

        Local councils hold within their responsibility many assets, some of them valuable for many reasons. So they should be treated with care and respect by everyone. When this Blog mentioned that deficiencies in the Betley Parish Council Asset Register had been noted, I received a chippy response from Anonymous (of course) asking was I expecting that every blade of grass on the Memorial Garden /Village Green should be listed too?   This did not only display ignorance, it was also an indication that the issue of Assets in Betley was not being taken all that seriously.             At last the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) is doing what it should be doing guiding local Councils towards acceptable procedures and even best practice.   One such measure which is timely is dealing with Asset Registers, which in some councils, are sadly deficient.   Betley Parish Council appears to be one. It i...

  When something is not quite right you just know it!    Which is why the election costs for Betley Parish Council need to be revisited - yet again. The Chair and Clerk have been keen to justify the £8,000 estimate of a Parish Council election – which didn’t take place as it turned out - and especially as co-options appear to have been the order of the day for the past 10 years at least, to fill any empty seats. Questions were raised re the justification of such a high figure.   The last time election costs were mentioned in 2022 and earlier, the amount charged and paid was £350.   Thus £8000 appeared to be an unexplained variance. When the figure of £8000 was announced the Clerk stated that this was the figure suggested by the NBC. The Report on Estimated Election Costs tabled at the meeting of 30 June 2026 and filed under an Agenda Item, makes interesting reading.   Indeed, it was found to be almost as confusing as the Parish Council accounts (See...

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...

  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....

  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 ...

    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...