Can reserves also contingency monies?

Question

At the last meeting, our police officer attended and asked whether the parish council would be prepared to pay £12 a month for a one-hour surgery with him for our local residents. The chair wanted these surgeries held in the local pub or busy cafe where they would be free. The officer said he wasn't keen on the pub/cafe suggestion as those were places where residents might feel uncomfortable or compromised. He explained that four of his parish councils held these surgeries in their village halls, paid for by their PCs. The clerk claimed that there this wasn't an item included in the budget so would have to be paid out of reserves. She failed to explain whether or not the PC had a contingency fund or whether reserves could be used to cover just this kind of scheme ie a monthly community police surgery. She was reminded that the PC had until recently funded an hour a month for Royal Mail post office services held in the village hall which again helped those residents who were unable to travel to the nearest PO in town, as we are not on a bus route. In the end, after lots of silly vauus arguments, a new councillor offered to pay out his own pocket for the first surgery to be held in the village hall. It was pathetic and showed residents justs what a bunch of mean-minded fools were running the council and taking advice from their clerk - who, by the way, earns more that £750 a month! Why cannot reserves (we have thousands of pounds in them) be used to pay for just such a service being undertaken for the benefit of the community?

Answer 1

Budgets are only a guide to expenditure, no matter how carefully prepared and researched. Clerks cannot predict prices of ad hoc goods and services exactly, there are too many variables - urgent repairs to damaged assets, fluctuating costs of consumables. I'd have thought £12 a month was neither here nor there, even for a small parish with a modest precept.

Comments

My thoughts exactly. Our precept is £17,000, we own no property or land, and have only a few modesst assets. The Clerk has just had to pay out £48 unforeseen bank charges - and the money is coming from....the council''s reserves. That £48 could have paid for 4 police surgeries...

Answer 2

Our local police meet regularly with our town council for free, so I am suprised this police service wants to charge, but hey thats their choice.  Take it out of reserves and increase the budget (and subsequently the precept) next year to recover those costs and the costs going forward!

Comments

The creation of budgets and reserves is so simple .  The problem is that Councillors (and some clerks) don't understand what they are doing .  Authorise it under S137 and allocate it to wherever you decide . Perhaps you have a S137 budget sub head ??

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Kent Police claim they have no money for these surgeries so it's up to local communities to stump up the cost of hiring a hall for an hour. It is better to have that time bendng the ear of our beat bobby on neutral territory within our village than have to drive miles to the nearest police station to raise issues of crime or concern. Our council used to hold monthly surgeries in the vlllage hall alongisde our village policceman - and they were welcomed - but those days are long gone.

Answer 3

The comment by the clerk sounds reasonable, the request is not budgeted for and hence it will come out of reserves (a statement of the obvious in all probability).  The councillors can then decide if they want that to happen (as it is in the powers of the council to do this), vote for it and the clerk carries out the wishes of the council.  At a pinch, as it was not an agenda item (?) then it can be dealt with formally at the next meeting.