I attended an appointment made with the clerk to inspect the annual accounts of the parish council at our village hall. It became apparent early on that the Clerk had provided a cheque book that covered only from March- October 2023, but not the cheque book that followed on from October 2023. When I asked to inspect the cheque book covering November 2023-April 2024 the Clerk said she had left it at home so it wasn't avaialble for me to inspect. I asked her to make a new appointment for me to inspect the cheque book in alongside all the other accounts and related documents etc as per the legal requirements. The Clerk point blank refused to provide me with another appointment within the pubished period for inspection of annual accounts or indeed at all. She claimed that I had no need or right to inspect the cheque books as they were not part of the documents related to the council's accounts. She said that she found the business of giving up her time to give one elector access to the accounts etc annoying, she had to give up her time, the council had to pay the villlage hall committee (£12 an hour) from public funds for the appointment and the community wouldn't want any more money spent just to allow me to see a cheque book and anyway i was the only person who ever wanted to inspect the accounts in our parish and she was not prepared to give up any more of her time to make arrangements for a second appiointment. The council chairman (who was also at the inspection) agreed with the Clerk, made rude and abusive comments about me and said that I had no right to demand a second inspection session and the Clerk would not be providing another appointment nor would she allow me to have sight of the missing cheque book or anything else. I'd had my opportunity and if I wasn't satisfied that was basically too bad. He claimed that there was no such thing as a second appointment for the anjual accounts. I asked for a ruling to be sought from our ALC and our Internal Auditor. The Clerk and Chairman refused this request, stating that it was nothing to do with either and that was that. I pointed out that as it was a legal requirement under an Act of Parliament I had every right to inspect all documents, books etc relatng to the annual accounts and if the Clerk who is also the RFO blocked my legal right I could resort to lawa and report the Clerk to the police. I was then accused of threatening the Clerk and abusing her position on the council. If Clerk/RFO and council chairman block an elector's lawful right to inspect all the relevant books, documents etc during the set period (24 June to 5 August in our case) who can that elector turn to? It is interesting to note that the Clerk only published the dates electors could inspect the annual accounts on the council website on 24 June, but didn't pin it onto the three village noticeboards until 5 July and claimed when asked why the delay,that she didn't have to publish the notice on the boards as ;most people nowadays have internet access, it wasn't mandatory to pubish on noticeboards, so she'd only put it on the boards when she posted the last meeting's draft minutes.on 5 July.
