FGPC June 2020 Minutes
Deeping St James Parish Council
The Institute, 38 Church Street, Deeping St James, Peterborough PE6 8HD
e-mail: clerk.dsjpc@btconnect.com
Tel: 01778 343266
Webpage: parishes.lincolnshire.gov.uk/deepingstjames
Parish Clerk: Julie Fortnum
The minutes of the meeting of the Finance and General Purposes Committee held on Thursday 11 June 2020 at 7.00pm
Present: Councillors Bowell, Gilbert, Halls, Hardy, Shinkins-Hoppe, Stevens and Thomas.
1.21 To elect a Chairperson.
It was proposed seconded and Resolved that Councillor Bowell should remain as Chairperson
2.21 To receive apologies of absence.
Apologies had been received and were accepted from Councillor Hosking
3.21 To receive any declarations of interest.
None
4.21 To adopt the minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 16 January 2020.
Agreed and signed
5.21 To receive the Clerk’s report -
A Business Deposit Card has been received from Barclays bank to allow cash to be paid into the account at any Post Office
The LCC Pension Fund Employers Contribution Rates for 2020/21 to 2022/23 have been confirmed as 22.5%
The Lincolnshire Pension Fund have advised that the discretion statement received from the parish council on 19 June 2015 needs to be reviewed considering recent LGA clarification on partial flexible retirement – it was agreed that this email request and Deeping St James Parish Council’s current statement should be sent to Councillor Bowell to consider
7.21 To receive a report of the current financial position including up to date income and expenditure figures.
The Parish Clerk apologised for not having sent the reports out prior to the meeting but confirmed that the report would be issued to them prior to full council so that the committee could be assured everything was in order. It was acknowledged that Councillor Stevens and Thomas had access to complete spot checks on the Barclays accounts. It was also noted that Councillor Shinkins-Hoppe and Councillor Halls were having problems accessing the Unity Trust account but were in contact with the bank.
8.21 To receive the Internal Auditor’s report for final quarter of 2019/20.
The report showed one finding – payment could not be found on the bank statements for one invoice on the March payment list. This has since been corrected.
9.21 To review the parish council’s standing orders.
Councillor Bowell had reviewed the parish council’s standing orders and shared the amended document with the committee members for comment. It was proposed seconded and Resolved that the document was adopted once any wording referring to specific legislation had been removed and replaced with 2in line with current legislation” and some wording relating to the ability to hold virtual meetings had been added.
10.21 To review the parish council’s financial regulations.
Councillor Bowell had reviewed the parish council’s financial regulations and shared the amended document with the committee members for comment it was proposed seconded and Resolved that they should be adopted.
11.21 To agree a timetable to review all the other policies throughout the financial year.
No timetable was agreed but it was agreed that the next two policy and procedure documents that should be reviewed were the staff handbook (which included a number of individual policies) and the Code of Conduct. The former will be externally reviewed by a HR provider. The Clerk advised that NALC have issued a consultation recently which will hopefully lead towards a new model code of conduct. Details would be shared with all councillors for theme to respond to the consultation.
12.21 To agree the date of the next meeting – 7pm on Thursday 16 July 2020