Well I can now announce that they have taken the very first step in this, the Parish Council have taken my advice and started to produce a set of accounts that is more open and readable to the average person on the street.
However as ever there is still the matter of "projects spend" if you look at these accounts it clearly sets out what has been spent on say the JPF Equipment, something they want you to know about because they are proud of that.
Sadly nowhere does it set out that they have spent over £13,000 on legal fees over the last few years, something they are not so proud about. A lot of the terminology is still "jargon" like "Concurrent Function" It is also a little confusing as to the matter of if all expenditure or if all income sits in brackets. Finally it sets out a massive move of funds from the reserve not just to pay for the JPF equipment but to pay for overheads and wages and maintenance. This cash withdrawal is only possible because of the previous councils ability to save cash.
This is a good start and should be commended, as being immeasurably more open and accountable than previous poor efforts. It has to be said, nobody knows why it has taken over 5 years to this September for this information to be produced, but now it has, it needs refining and opening up more so ordinary non accounting people can understand the "Narrative" of the document and the decisions that the council has made.
Also worth noting the massive increase in projected income from £86K this year to a projected £175K next year. Remember this in the main is a local TAX, everyone in our community is putting their hard earned cash into this pot, you have a right to be consulted on how it is spent, and a right to have an input into what projects it is spent on. The day of the great and the good and the staff having their pet projects delivered with other peoples cash is over.
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