Items included in Budget which have not been voted on by Full Council

Question

In our Parish Council budget, an item of £6,000 expenditure has been reserved, but the item has not ever been debated, proposed or agreed and approved by voting of the Full Council. i this normal procedure? Our precept was raised by nearly 9% . Other items which parishioners have asked for have been ignored.

Answer 1

All planned items should have been agreed at the precept setting meeting (however your parish organised these), or subsequent meetings of the finance committee or full council to amend the budget.

It is more likely than not it was approved, but was this item a new reserved, a reserved spending matter, or a carry forward of an existing reserve?

Answer 2

The budget should have been presented to full council, and a resolution given that it was accepted.  If so that would have been the implicit approval to authorise the  spending.  If anybody objected, then they should have said so at the meeting where the budget was presented.  If the objection was not supported by a sufficient number of members, the spending could still go ahead. Sadly, a lot of members just vote things through on the nod without studying details in advance.   If it was agreed but not spent, then the next budget should have indicated as such , and explained why it wasn't spent.   The clerk/RFO should have called for a resolution given about whether to add it to reserves, reduce the precept accordingly etc.

Comments

Thank your your very helpful reply. I am one of those councillors who does highlight these issues but as you say, sadly many members vote things through with a nod. The precept setting meeting is not minuted so who knows what is discussed?  I am learning and will go through our budget with an even finer tooth-comb next year.