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13 January 2024
Hughenden Parish Council has a Full Council meeting on Tuesday 16 January.
This will be the first time Council has had an up-to-date and reasonably accurate budget monitoring report for this financial year. Councillors received this report on 11 January.
This is the first time Council has had a proposed budget for 2024/5. Councillors received this proposed budget on 12 January.
This is the first time Council will discuss its precept i.e. decide what taxes it will receive from its taxpayers for 2024/5. Council has to decide and inform Bucks Council of its precept by the end of January. (Bucks Council collects parish councils’ taxes and forwards the money on to parish councils).
I think it is fair to say that, despite hours of work by officers and councillors, Council has been given insufficient time and preparation to understand HPC’s current financial position, to understand what is proposed for next year and to make an objective and well-informed decision on the precept.
I think it is fair to say that much of the problem is caused by Council’s failure to understand its financial systems, to ensure they work and to operate and monitor them effectively.
I certainly find it hard to understand why HPC paid £20k last year to a contractor to improve and operate its systems and Council is still not getting the benefits.
I spent a few hours trying to understand the papers and here is my factual summary of the Council’s position (figures are approximate and to the nearest £10k). I apologise in advance if I have got this wrong. However, it is difficult understanding the papers; no-one else has provided an explanation; and it is better than nothing.
NB In fact, I have had to change some of this blog (on 14 January after looking at the figures again. I can only say that councillors should not be in this position; they should be very clear about HPC’s financial position.
Factual summary of finances
Council started 2023/4 year with £450k in the bank. It is estimated that Council will start 2024/5 with £620k in the bank.
I understand that the increase in money in the bank consists of an estimated surplus of £170k against HPC’s 2023/4 budget. £130k of this is money received in 2023/4 under the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) for which Council did not budget.
If that estimate is correct, HPC’s estimated underspend for this financial year is £250k. Council budgeted to use some of its reserves and run a deficit of £80k. The underspend is therefore the difference between what was budgeted (a deficit of £80k) and its outcome (a surplus of £170k).
The proposed budget for 2024/5 proposes the same precept for 2024/5 as 2023/4 i.e. £220k.
This, with other income such as the allotment and burial fees of £50k, gives a total income for 2024/5 of £270k.
Therefore the total monies available to Council during 2024/5 (the money in the bank and HPC’s income) would be £890k.
The proposed budget for 2024/5 puts all the 2023/4 CIL money and another tranche expected in 2024/5 into the reserves (total of £150k). It puts another £200k into the reserves, £120k of which is for general purposes and the remainder for specific purposes.
This is a total of £350k in the reserves.
This leaves £540k available to spend.
The proposed 2024/5 budget proposes an increase in direct costs of £210k, up from £140k this year to £350 in 2024/5. The increase is made up primarily of £130k to contract out the procurement of two new playgrounds at Templewood and Great Kingshill, £70k on consultant and other fees for site management plans for an unspecified number of sites the Council owns, and £10k on road safety.
It is proposed to have a reduced budget for HR and admin, down by £10k to £180k.
Those are the facts as set out in the papers.
We can add the fact that year after year, including this year, HPC has underspent on its budget.
Every year, it has underspent on the basic work of the Council i.e. on the maintenance of the allotments and the burial grounds, the maintenance of its playgrounds, basic maintenance of HPC’s assets such as cutting the hedges, tree maintenance, repairing bus shelters and noticeboards.
Every year, Council has failed to deliver on its basics, including having sound financial systems, ensuring it complies with its statutory responsibilities and monitoring its existing contracts.
Every year, Council has budgeted to do major projects but every year has failed to do so.
The internal auditor has picked up on the problem and recommended that Council might “mitigate the operational problems caused by the high turnover of staff by putting in place a listing of key operational tasks which can be made available to agency staff”…
The way forward
According to the Chair of HPC, there are two broad strategies for the way ahead.
One strategy (and the one I support), is to delay all new major projects until the Council has the capacity to do them and has got the basics right. This would include for example:-
- Responding to all the internal auditor’s reports; HPC has not responded to the previous 4 reports and now has a fifth outstanding;
- Implementing the internal auditor’s recommendation for a list of key operational tasks i.e. set priorities;
- Compiling a list of all HPC’s existing contracts and asking the following questions for each:-
· what is it for?
· who is it with?
· how much will Council pay?
· what should it deliver?
· how is it being monitored?
· what is the outcome?
· is it value for money?
This strategy would allow the precept to be set to zero i.e. give residents a tax-free year from parish council taxes. HPC has more than sufficient money to do this.
It would also give the Council a sound basis for providing the basic services for residents cost effectively and for ensuring it had sound financial systems and complied with the law.
It would provide a sound basis on which to do new, major work in the future.
The alternative is to try to contract out new major work while sorting out the basics.
This would require the precept to remain at its current level as in the proposed budget for 2024/5.
The rationale for this is to “break the stagnation of the past few years and do something to improve the Parish for its residents”. Those advocating this strategy say my preferred strategy would “leave our two playgrounds virtually unusable and continued deterioration of the open spaces we are charged with utilising for the maximum benefit of the residents.”
I would merely say that my preferred strategy would mean the playgrounds would be properly maintained and made safe because this is a basic key operational task.
There is £10k in the budget this year for the playgrounds but only £3k has been spent – virtually all on safety inspections and, as the internal auditor has pointed out, none of the recommendations of the inspector have been implemented.
My preferred strategy would mean Council ensures that the money we already spend (or budget for) on allotments, the burial grounds, and other land i.e. £110k this year is monitored and provides value for money.
I would also add that even if the major, new work on playgrounds and site management was contracted out, it would still require substantial time and resources from councillors and officers. Much of the time and resources of HPC’s E&S Committee is already taken up with this work and officers would need to draw up tenders, consider bids and monitor and supervise the successful consultants/contractor.
This is time and resources the Council does not have.
So, you can take your choice and see what Council decides on Tuesday.
P.S. The agenda also covers:-
- electing a Vice Chair. I have yet to see any nominations;
- receiving a list of monthly payments. Uder HPC’s Financial Regulations, Council is required to approve payments in advance; on Tuesday Council is, once again, merely being asked to receive the list of payments already made. This is a breach of the Regulations. The internal auditor has sort of picked up on this;
- appointing more bank signatories. Signatories have already been given access without the Council’s approval in breach of its Financial Regulations. The internal audit has also picked up on this in his report;
- a report from the RFO (not received yet). Council has still not appointed an RFO in breach of its Financial Regulations;
- a report from the internal auditor (sent to the Locum Clerk on 22 December 2023 but only circulated on 11 January in breach of HPC’s Financial Regulations which requires the report to be sent to councillors without undue delay);
- proposals to approve grant applications from the Grange Area Trust, Hughenden Street Association, Hughenden Valley Community Trust and Widmer End Residents’ Association;
- a report from Bucks Council’s Monitoring Officer. I think this is another complaint against me but I haven’t read it;
- a recommendation from the HR Committee to learn from an exit interview with the ex-Clerk Alice Fisher. There is no information on this.
- a proposal to spend up to £1400 for a mural at Cockpit Hole;
- a proposal to approve an uncosted site management plan for Vincent Meadow and Pond. A post on HPC’s website on 19 December said Council would post the plan for comment. This has still not been done.
- a calendar of Council meetings (still proposed for every two months rather than monthly).