Earley Town Council

Minutes of a meeting of the Policy & Resources Committee held in the Council Chamber at the Council Offices, Radstock Lane, Earley on Wednesday, 21^stMarch 2007 which commenced at 7.50 pm.

Councillors C J W Edmunds, N Jorgensen, A Spratling, D Swindells.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor D Chopping (due to holiday), M Deegan (due to work commitments) and K Ward (due to work commitments)

The Chairman said that it was with sadness that he had to announce the sudden death of Mr Dowdall, the husband of former Council Chairman, Mrs Irene Dowdall.

RESOLVED that the Town Clerk be requested to forward a letter of condolence to Mrs Dowdall and family.

The minutes of the meeting of the Policy & Resources Committee held on 24^th January 2007 were confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

Councillors noted that letters of thanks relating to the provisional allocations of financial assistance for 2007/08 had been received from:

· CResCent Resource Centre for the additional allocation of grant towards the Mobile Information Centre

The minutes of the Youth & Community Sub-Committee held on 27^th February 2007 had been circulated with the Agenda for Councillors’ consideration.

Councillor C Edmunds advised that he had been detained at a Wokingham Borough Council meeting and had, therefore, been unable to give his apologies for the meeting.

Councillors’ attention was drawn to the recommendation at Minute 7, which gave provisional dates for future meetings of the Sub-Committee. It was

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Youth & Community Sub-Committee held on 27^th February 2007, as appended, be approved and the recommendation at Minute 7 be adopted.

RESOLVED that in view of the confidential nature of the items under discussion, the press and public be excluded from this section of the meeting.

Councillors were advised that a letter had been received, forwarded by Wokingham Borough Council, from Tewkesbury Borough Council, asking that each local authority across the country should invite Town and Parish Councils to support the following Motion:

"This Council is aware of the situation in which British Forces and their families, who are stationed overseas, cannot receive parcels free of charge, as they could in 2003.

This Council believes that the situation is both an appalling and disgraceful way to treat our dedicated and hardworking troops and their families, given the hardship that they face in the world's hotspots and war zones and, therefore, asks that the Government reinstates this service as a matter of urgency."

A copy of the letter from Tewkesbury Borough Council was appended to the Agenda for Councillors’ consideration. On the proposition of Councillor D Swindells, seconded by Councillor A Spratling it was

RESOLVED that the Town Council should support the motion proposed by Tewksbury Borough Council.

Members were reminded that at Minute 73 of the Committee Meeting held on 1^st February 2006, it was recorded that the contract for the external audit had passed from the District Audit to UHY Hacker Young. At that date, the Town Clerk had informed Members that UHY Hacker Young had not carried out the external audit of the 2004/05 accounts. The Town Clerk advised that the audit of the 2004/05 accounts took place in May 2006 but that to date the final Accounts Memorandum had yet to be issued.

Members were further advised that, at the date of preparation of the Agenda, the audit of accounts for the Council year 2005/06 had yet to be carried out. Although a letter had been received from Hacker Young setting out the proposed dates to carry out this audit, the formal notice had not been issued by them and, therefore, the audit was still not complete.

Councillors’ attention was then drawn to a letter received from the Audit Commission which had been appended to the Agenda for their consideration, which proposed extending the appointment of UHY Hacker Young to cover the 2006/07 audit. Councillors were advised that the Town Clerk, on behalf of the Council, had responded to say that, because of the previous performance of UHY Hacker Young, the Council was not prepared to accept the proposal. An approach had been received from the Audit Commission in response to the Town Clerk’s letter and Members were, therefore, asked to consider whether they wished to appoint UHY Hacker Young for a further year, pending the proposed competition for tenders for appointment of auditors for the future.

Considerable concern was expressed by all Members present about the very poor performance of UHY Hacker Young, and the fact that Hacker Young’s seeming inability to stick to their own time table in respect of the 2005/06 Audit did not give any confidence that their performance was likely to improve in the near future. Concern was also expressed that, because of the very late signing of the 2004/05 accounts, senior members of the Town Council staff could be left in a vulnerable position.

Members felt that, under the circumstances, a further extension of the appointment of UHY Hacker Young to cover the 2006/07 Audit was inappropriate, and it was

RESOLVED that the Town Clerk be requested to write to the Audit Commission expressing these concerns and requesting details of the alternative options which would be available to the Town Council to achieve an audit of the 2006/07 accounts.

The Committee noted details of Orders for Payment met since the last meeting of the Town Council. It was

RESOLVED that the various accounts set out in the list attached to these minutes (Vouchers 521 - 600) be paid in the sums as stated and details of the Imprest Vouchers (Vouchers 248 - 281) be noted.

It was noted that the following publications had been received and were held in the Council Offices:

67. PRESS RELEASES

RESOLVED that the Town Council’s support in respect of the motion received from Tewksbury Borough Council should received special press attention.

Minutes of the closed section of the Policy & Resources Committee held on 21^st March 2007.

Councillors were given a verbal report of the discussions which had taken place at the Staffing Review Sub-Committee Meeting which had preceded this meeting of the Policy & Resources Committee. Reference was made to a number of recommendations made by the Sub-Committee, details of which are contained in the Notes of the Staffing Review Sub-Committee Meeting, a copy of which is attached, for Members only.

RESOLVED that the recommendations verbally reported and contained at items, 3, 4 & 5 of the report of the meeting of the Staffing Review Sub-committee held on 21^st March, 2007, as appended, be adopted.