The Parish Council says it will implement in full the recommendations of an auditor about its procedural failings revealed at a meeting last week.

The recommendations, relating to the last three financial years, mainly involved failures with procedures, policies and financial reporting going back to 2021. Reviews by external auditors showed a series of ways in which the Council had failed to meet its statutory duties, including failure to reconcile bank statements, failure to publish various documents on the Council website and failure to meet a deadline for producing its Annual Governance and Accountability Return which all parish councils must do. At the meeting the Council approved a raft of policies and reports to address the issues.

'Bishop Monkton Today' asked the Council to explain how the issues had been able to happen, In response, the Chair of the Parish Council, Stephen Verrill. told us:- "The Parish Council has been through a difficult few years and fully accepts the findings of the auditor. We welcome the fact that the issues are mostly around process compliance which can be resolved quickly. All recommendations will be implemented in full."