Page 1 of 3
Minutes Approved by Chair / Acting Chair : …………………………… Date: ……………………………
BRERETON AND RAVENHILL PARISH COUNCIL
DISTRICT OF CANNOCK CHASE COUNTY OF STAFFORDSHIRE
Minutes of the
FINANCE ASSET & RISK
COMMITTEE MEETING
Held at: the Parish Hall, Ravenhill Park, Brereton, Rugeley. WS15 1DU
Thursday 20th June at 7.30pm – 8.00pm
WELCOME
Miles Blackham (MB)(Chair)
Kay Paul (Vice Chair)
APOLOGIES were received from Dana Blocksidge (DB), Kev Theobald (KT), and Carl Boulton (CB). Sue Merriman (SM), who would be arriving late. (Arrived at 7.43pm) All apologies were accepted.
In Attendance: J Gascoigne (JG)(Council Vice Chair), L Featherstone (RFO) and PR Whibley (C)(Clerk).
C Davies (CD),
These nominated Cllrs were appointed to this committee to ensure that the meeting was quorate.
C. Harris (CH),
R Hall (RH),
48. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST IN ANY ITEMS ON THE AGENDA
None
49. NOTICES FROM THE CHAIR AND CLERK
None
50. AGREEING THE MINUTES FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING (see attached)
To approve and sign off the minutes of Finance Asset & Risk Committee meeting held on Thursday 6th June 2024.
Minutes were approved and signed by the Chair.
51. MATTERS ARISING FROM PREVIOUS MEETING
19.3a.2 That LF will investigate the issue of tax on food. Ongoing. To be presented at a future meeting.
It is believed that the issue of VAT will not arise from the establishment of the parish hall café. As the takings will only be minimal in financial terms and so will not detrimentally affect, significantly enough any local businesses, then there shouldn’t be any issue with VAT. If
Page 2 of 3
Minutes Approved by Chair / Acting Chair : …………………………… Date: ……………………………
however the café were to expand and the VAT threshold of £1000 were to be achieved, although extremely unlikely, the council will need to take appropriate action.
44.1. That the clerk will update some of the highlighted sections of the Risk Assessment and place on the agenda for the next meeting for further review. Completed. (item 58)
44.2. That the RFO organise the authorisation for all members of the Finance Committee to be able to countersign payments, as well as the Chair and Vice Chair of the council. To be actioned.
52. MATTERS ARISING FROM COUNCIL MEETING
56.0.2. That the Clerk would present the FAR guidelines at next Full Council meeting. (information only)
43.1 That the RFO initiate a donation payment to the three groups of £46 each. Completed. Cheques ready for dual signing.
53. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
None
54. FINANCIAL PLANNING To be sent by the RFO separately. c/f from previous meeting
e.g. Café
The document setting out a possible financial process needed to support the development of the café was re-presented from the last meeting. After a lengthy discussion and vote it was decided that the FAR committee recommends to the Council that this procedure and financial arrangements should be adopted.
54.1. Resolved: That a motion on the proposal about the financial procedures be put to the Council meeting on 18th July for approval.
The RFO presented three alternative options for the purchase of both a deposit safe and a cash register. After explaining the merits and disadvantages of each, a wider discussion ensued. It became obvious that hirers of the hall would not be able to use the cash register as the till roll would need to be balanced on the takings of the café alone. Thought is still needed as to where the cash register would be stored when not in use.
The meeting decided and voted to recommend one of the alternatives for both the safe and cash register.
54.2. Resolved: That a further motion on the selected equipment be put to the Council meeting on 18th July for approval.
55. UNITY TRUST c/f from previous meeting
At present the council has four bank accounts. A decision is needed as to how many accounts are necessary and with whom. The HSBC accounts appear not to allow double signing which the council feel is vital. There is also the concern that the council does not want to have more that the guaranteed £85000 in any one account. The question was raised as to how much should be transferred to the Unity Bank A/c.
55.1. Resolved: That this be placed on the agenda for the next meeting.
56. BANK RECONCILIATION To be sent by the RFO separately.
All figures tallied, were checked and the financial statement was signed.
Page 3 of 3
Minutes Approved by Chair / Acting Chair : …………………………… Date: ……………………………
57. INCOME .v. INVOICES To be sent by the RFO separately.
It was asked by the RFO if monthly Direct Debits for utilities could be left off the list, as they occur every month ? This was agreed.
Some issues were raised concerning individual hirers and what is the procedure for those that are late in paying (see PHM minutes Item 23). The hirers pointed out the lack of contact details available to them when they hired the hall.
It was noted that there were two payments to the same energy company, on the list, but they covered two separate months. A further energy payment was questioned and the RFO agreed to investigate this.
57.1. Resolved: That the RFO would report back with his findings as to why this latter payment is on this month’s spreadsheet.
All financial papers were sent out well in advance, but additional papers were presented at the meeting. The members felt that ALL financial papers must go out at the same time as the Agenda. It was proposed that one or two of the FAR committee could meet with the RFO to discuss in detail the financial documents prior to every meeting, (on behalf of the other members). This was felt necessary to ensure that the committee could be given a clearer picture of the fiscal position by members upskilling their own financial understanding.
57.2. Resolved: That the clerk place the pre-meeting discussion of the financial papers on the next agenda for further discussion.
58. RISK ASSESSMENT REVIEW CONTINUES (see 2 grids attached)
The Risk Assessment grids for 1 -23 were re-visited and revised by the clerk with the information from the previous meeting. There are still risk issues that it is felt need addressing.
The question was asked whether the working groups would be better placed to evaluate the grid for 24 -54. It was decided that a meeting of SM, RFO and the clerk would be more effective and time efficient. However the RFO is on holiday the week after next, so SM and the clerk will meet by themselves.
58.1. Resolved: That the clerk and SM meet to reassess the risks posed to BRPC using the Risk Assessment grid and to produce a revised grid showing areas of concern that presently the committee need to address prior to it being presented to council for approval.
The meeting overran the time allocated so the last item will be dealt with in the Council meeting immediately following this FAR meeting.
59. AGAR & INTERNAL AUDIT
To be dealt with in full at tonight’s Full Council meeting.
60. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
Thursday 4th July 2024 at 7.30pm
Meeting closed at 8.06pm