April 2025 DRAFT Minutes (EOM)
ALLINGTON PARISH COUNCIL
Extraordinary Parish Council Meeting
Allington Village Hall Annexe
08th April 2025 – 1915pm
Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 08th April 2025
PRESENT
Cllr Reynolds Cllr Marvin
Cllr Baron Cllr Plummer
Cllr Storer Cllr Scott
Kate Griffin (Clerk & RFO)
Co-option candidate – Alexander Carlyle
No members of the public attended for the public forum.
1. Chairman’s Welcome
The Vice - Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting which started at 19;15pm.
Cllr Marvin welcomed Cllr Reynolds back from recent absence.
Cllr Marvin introduced the council to the candidate for co-option.
2. Apologies for absence
There were no absences or apologies.
3. Approval of minutes
It was resolved to approve the notes of the Parish Council Meeting held on 12th March 2025 as a true record of the meeting
4. TO RECEIVE DECLARATIONS OF PECUNIARY INTEREST IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LOCALISM ACT 2011
To receive declarations of Members interests in relation to agenda items.
To consider request for dispensations from Members.
No declarations were made.
5. Councillor Co-option
It was proposed to allow the candidate to speak and present his case, which would then be followed by a Q&A after which the candidate would leave the room whilst the councillors discussed the application in private in a closed session due to the nature of the personal information, and then re-open the meeting to allow the candidate back in the room for the voting. The proposal was resolved by all councillors.
The candidate gave a presentation and spoke about himself and his reasons for wishing to join the council for approximately 5 minutes which was then followed by several questions from the councillors.
The council then went in to a closed session, as resolved, whilst the candidate left the room during which the councillors discussed the candidates’ case for co-option.
The session was then reopened to allow for the voting as follows:
Proposer Cllr Reynolds
Seconder Cllr Plummer
Those in favour - 4
Those who abstained – 2
Cllr Marvin ( vice chair) welcomed the candidate to the council and invited him to stay for the rest of the meeting.
6. Internal Audit
Copies of the recent internal audit were circulated to the councillors for review prior to the meeting.
Cllr Marvin gave a brief update and explained that the recent audit highlighted several areas of recommendations where improvements needed to be made. Cllr Marvin explained that the auditor was unable to find some documents and that the hereditary filing system needed better organisation.
Cllr Marvin explained that some of the recommendations of the audit report have already been implemented and resolved which are as follows:
Uploading of missing 2024 documents to the parish website.
Policies were reviewed at the May 2024 APM but not documented in minutes.
Missing policies have been downloaded ready for approval at May 2025 APM.
An asset register is to be put in place.
Payments for approval need to be signed by 2 councillors , this has now been adopted.
Agendas need to be signed and dated by Parish Clerk.
A fireproof filing cabinet is required for document storage.
Variance and bank reconciliation documents uploaded to website 28/2/25
Budget precept figures for 025/26 - uploaded to website.
As the internal audit forms part of the forthcoming AGAR requirements, Cllr Marvin explained that the Parish Council are taking action to show they are using best practices.
It was resolved for the Parish Clerk to be allowed additional hours to work on the audit recommendations and work through the report until everything was in order.
The asset register was discussed at length as this needs updating as per the internal audit which Cllr Marvin asked whether this could be shared between the councillors to action.
It was resolved that the Parish Clerk would check historical records for receipts/invoices for PC assets.
It was proposed the Cllr Scott would liaise with the Playing Fields Committee.
It was resolved that Cllr Storer would liaise with the village hall.
It was resolved that Cllrs Reynolds and Plummer would look at the playing field fixed items.
It was resolved that the new councillor (AC) would look at valuations of assets in preparation for creating the register.
The audit report indicated that safer storage was required for the Parish Laptop and paperwork and it was resolved that the Parish Clerk would investigate purchasing a lockable and fireproof cabinet.
7. Date of the next meeting:
16/04/2025 – Annual Village Meeting
14/05/2025 – Annual Parish Council Meeting
Items for the agenda for the next Parish Council meeting will be considered but were not on this agenda for discussion.
Close of Meeting
21.00