FPPC June 2025 Minutes
The minutes of the Finance, Policy and Personnel Committee meeting held in the meeting room at the Institute 38 Church Street Deeping St James PE6 8HD at 8.00pm on Tuesday 03 June 2025.
Present: Councillors Bowell, Gilbert, Laws, Neville, Shinkins-Hoppe and Stevens.
Councillor Rose was also present.
The minutes were taken by the Parish Clerk
26.01 To elect a Chairperson
It was proposed seconded and RESOLVED that Councillor Gilbert should be Chairperson.
26.02 To receive apologies of absence.
Apologies had been received and were accepted from Councillors Halls and Hosking.
26.03 To receive any declarations of interest.
None received.
26.04 To adopt the minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 8 April 2025.
Agreed and signed.
26.05 To receive the Clerk’s report.
Following the last meeting the agreed responses have been forwarded to the Internal Auditor to the comments they raised in their interim report dated 19 March 2025.
Section 2 of the Annual Governance and Accounting Return for the financial year 2024/25 has been completed and along with a number of associated reports has been forwarded to the Internal Auditor. A virtual meeting has been arranged with the Internal Auditor for 6pm on Monday 2 June 2025 to consider the AGAR and reports leading to them signing the Annual Internal Audit Report section. These documents will then be shared with the Council on 17 June 2025 where sections 1 and 2 will be agreed and signed prior to all the paperwork being forwarded to the external Auditor by 30 June 2025.
The Clerk has completed a submission form to Unity Trust requesting that both Councillors Burdock and Laws be added as individuals able to view accounts and authorise payments. Signatures and proof of identification now need to be forwarded for this to be finalised.
A request from the Valuation Office Agency for lease information relating to the office at the Institute was completed on 27 May 2025. This is a legal requirement with a penalty imposed for non-completion.
The Pensions Regulator redeclaration of compliance required to be renewed every three years was completed on 29 May 2025.
26.06 To receive a report of the financial position as at 28 May 2025.
Following consideration of the reports provided it was agreed to investigate opening another account
ACTION: The Clerk was asked to obtain information about alternative accounts
ACTION: Arrange for Councillor Laws to become an additional signatory for Barclays Bank
26.07 To receive a report on the income and expenditure against budget for the period 1 April 2024 to 28 May 2025.
The report provided were considered by the members where it was noted that the grant payments made to Deeping Youth Group and Deepings Community Library had been allocated to the incorrect budget code. Other than this no further issues were raised.
ACTION: The Clerk was asked to correct this
26.08 To receive the revised Standing Orders taking into account the amendment agreed in minute 25.60 of the meeting on 8 April 2025 and the changes within the Procurement Act 2023 and Regulations 2024
The committee RECOMMENDED the following amendments to the Council and the adoption of the revised Standing Orders:
Standing Order 3 e)
remove the following wording – “Members of the public wishing to attend a meeting should register their attendance at least 48 hours prior to the start of the meeting and give notice of any questions they intend to pose”
Standing order 14
to remove points a), b) and c)
a. Upon notification by the District Council that it is dealing with a complaint that a councillor or non-councillor with voting rights has breached the council’s code of conduct, the Proper Officer shall, subject to standing order 11 above, report this to the council.
b. Where the notification in standing order 14(a) above relates to a complaint made by the Proper Officer, the Proper Officer shall notify the Chairperson of Council of this fact, and the Chairperson shall nominate another staff member to assume the duties of the Proper Officer in relation to the complaint until it has been determined the council has agreed what action, if any, to take in accordance with standing order 14(d) below.
c. The council may:
i. provide information or evidence where such disclosure is necessary to progress an investigation of the complaint or is required by law;
ii. ii. seek information relevant to the complaint from the person or body with statutory responsibility for investigation of the matter;
Standing order 18 a) v)
to increase the amount from £25,000 to £60,000.
Standing order 18 c)
To amend the wording from
“A public contract regulated by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 with an estimated value in excess of £25,000 but less than the relevant thresholds in standing order 18(f) is subject to regulations 109-114 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 which include a requirement of the Council to advertise the contract opportunity on the Contracts Finder website regardless of what other means it uses to advertise the opportunity unless it proposes to use an existing list of approved suppliers,”
To
“Where the value of a contract is likely to exceed the threshold specified by the Government from time to time, the Council must consider whether the contract is subject to the requirements of the current procurement legislation and, if so, the Council must comply with procurement rules. NALC’s procurement guidance contains further details”.
Standing order 26 b)
To remove the words - “the written notice”
The terms of reference and delegated powers of this committee had also been clarified and those powers delegated to this committee had been removed from point 5 j).
26.09 To receive the following draft policies:
1. Environmental and Sustainability
Councillor Laws introduced the draft policy document
It was agreed that a clause should be added to point 4.3 planning and development section stating a commitment to referring to the Deepings Neighbourhood Plan.
Councillor Laws agreed to and add this to the policy.
It was proposed to RECOMMEND to Council that once this additional clause was added that this policy should be adopted along with the appendix of a Climate Action plan.
A working party should be formed to create an action plan and note the Parish Council’s progress against it. It was also recommended that a Climate Action Working Party should be formed and that the Members should be decided at the Council meeting.
2. Grants (Councillor Halls)
In the absence of Councillor Halls, it was agreed that this policy would be considered at the next committee meeting on Tuesday 12 August 2025
3. Records retention (Parish Clerk)
The Parish Clerk had prepared a draft which the committee worked through making further amendments before agreeing to adopt it.
26.10 To consider adopting the following policies:
1. CCTV policy
Example provided from Caddington Town Council
2. IT policy
Guidance - SAPPP 2025 - Why Every Parish and Town Council Now Needs an IT Policy
Example provided from Frodsham Town Council
Councillor Laws offered to write a CCTV and an IT policy for DSJPC and share the draft at the August meeting for consideration
26.11 To consider the HR documentation review received from an Independent Human Resources provider along with and the quotation for the completion of the work
The review was considered by the Members of the committee and it was proposed seconded and RESOLVED to accept the quotation of £399 from Keeping HR Simple to update the staff handbook and provide a template contract in line with the comments within the HR documentation review
26.12 To note the date of the next meeting – 8pm Tuesday 12 August 2025