The Parish Council approved a raft of reports and policies at an extra meeting last night to tackle problems identified earlier in the year in what one councillor described as ‘reset time’.

The actions, relating to the last three financial years, mainly involve 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.

‘Bishop Monkton Today’ has asked the Council for a statement about how these problems were able to occur and we will publish that when we receive it.

However, the retrospective action by councillors last night should mean that the Council will avoid any further sanctions, although it has had to pay a £210 fee for failing to meet deadlines.

An action plan has been drawn up which councillors approved which should ensure that mistakes are not repeated in the future. Two Councillors, Steve Oliver and Dean Culshaw, were appointed to conduct quarterly, internal control checks. The plan was written by a locum clerk, Rebecca Crabtree (who was previously the PC Clerk) who was taken on to work specifically on helping to resolve the governance issues.

During the public participation section of the meeting, one member of the public raised the matter of the performance of the Council Clerk, Sue Reid, but councillors decided not to respond because they felt it was a confidential matter inappropriate for a public session.

Sue Reid did not attend the meeting. Earlier in the year, she had a period of sick leave although she is now back at work. The Council has set up a staffing committee to monitor staffing issues.

One councillor expressed relief that action had been taken to tackle the problems. “This is reset time. We are now legal. In a year’s time, the Council will be in a much better place’, he said.

Several members of the public who attended the meeting, congratulated the Council and the locum clerk on the action they were taking to try to resolve the issues.

There will be more detail on the meeting on the Parish Council’s own website including both the governance documents and council policies approved at the meeting.