Meeting Agenda:
Finance and Governance
| Meeting Date: | Monday 20 Nov 2023 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 19:30 |
| Councillors | Angela Baker, Sarah Compton Vice-Chairwoman, Michael Gemmell Smith, Alan Layland, Stuart McGregor, Angela Read, Stephen Sumner Chairman. |
| Committee: | Finance and Governance |
| Venue: | Rickards Hall. 72a High Street Edenbridge, TN8 5AR Kent |
| Notes: | |
| Summary: | Draft Budget Meeting |
Agenda
Minutes
The disclosure must include the nature of the interest. If an interest becomes apparent to a member during the course of a meeting that has not been disclosed under this item, the member must immediately disclose it.
Minutes for July are on the website (link below). The October minutes, I will try to publish before Monday's meeting.
| 2023-012 - Minutes of Finance and Governance | 24 July 2023 v.1 |
| 2023-020 - Minutes of Finance and Governance | 09 October 2023 v.1 |
Recent Activities report:
Bank Account queries: No progress with Lloyds bank account closure; this has been put on hold due to other work commitments, but not forgotten. Lloyds Bank are very difficult to communicate with.
Bank Signatories additions for Barclays, no requires each signatory to formally have their ID confirmed. Confirmation has been received and the individual signatories now need to confirm ID.
Cemeteries: Revenue is currently above budget. Processing cemetery enquiries through to payments and uploading data.
Insurance: An outstanding claim for the damaged streetlight at Mill Hill/Memorial Hospital; ETC has paid and we are waiting for the third parity insurance.
Budgeting: The budget has been reviewed with a number of codes reviewed and increases applied where expected. Open Spaces Committee and Personnel Committee considered its budgets, and Council made recommendation on other specific expenditure for 2024-25.
EDGE only allows period end with VAT return; this has been done up to 30 September. Therefore, as reports include October transactions they will not balance when cross referencing. Hopefully, we can have this done for January meeting.
Payments for October were approved by Cllrs Layland and McArthur.
None.
Payment run will coincide with payroll week 20 November, and end of the month.
Payments over £500 are published on the website.
| Transparency expenditure over £500 |
The I&E account is to period end - 30 September 2023.
| 5.6 230931 period end i and e account period.pdf |
The consolidate balance sheet is to period end - 30 September 2023.
| 5.7 230931 Consolidated balance to period end.pdf |
Transfer are for August, September and October.
| 5.10 Account transfers.pdf |
The fees and charges increase each year, usually in line with inflation measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI). The RPI for September 2023 was 8.9%, but October looks like will be 6.1%. Previously September’s figure has been used, but as we have October, both have been shown for consideration.
This will be reflected in the fees and charges and presented to Committee at Monday's meeting.
| RPI Sept 2023 |
The current SLAs: HOUSE £8,000; The Eden Valley Museum £6,500. Twinning had its 50th Anniversary this year and the group met in November resolving to close.
Do Members confirm to continue with the two SLAs for 2024?
Leases for each Club differ slightly. Actual invoicing changes are effective from 1 April due to the invoicing dates in two equal payments:
Cricket – annually on review date (1 January) by RPI at the rent review date
Nomads – two yearly review February (month agreement made) by RPI published in the month preceding the review date – last increase was 2023, so no increase 2024.
Rugby – increase annually by RPI at the rent review date
Do Members recommend to the full Council the lease rents for 2024.
A report in the draft budget, recommendations and considerations will be circulated separately.