Minutes Council Finance Meeting May 27 2026
Minutes of Special Finance Meeting held Wednesday 27 May 2026 at 6.15 pm at Stoodleigh Parish Hall
Present
Cllr Knowles (Chair), Cllr Widdowson, Cllr Mansfield, Cllr B Wotton
County Cllr S Lodge
1. Apologies for absence. Cllr D Wotton, Cllr C Payne
2. Declarations of interest. None
3. Opportunity for Public to speak on agenda items. No public present.
4. Clerk email address.
As a minimum, the Clerk must have a .gov.uk or .org.uk email address which must be in place by 31/03/2027 as this is now a requirement and is a question on the AGAR form. The Parish Council did not meet this requirement for the year ending 31/03/2026.
Cllr Mansfield has carried out some research and provided a note of the potential cost.
The situation has changed following a notification from MDDC that from 1 April 2028, that they will no longer host the Parish Council website.
Cllr Lodge provided some suggestions.
The Parish website is currently managed by G Talbot. They have decided to step down having covered the role for many years.
This item was deferred to the July Parish Council meeting due to the situation changing and the need to have a website as well as the Clerk email address and possibly .gov.uk or .org.uk email addresses for all the Parish Councillors.
5. Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) 2025-26 points to note
a) Section 1 Q10 answered “no” and explanation provided. Noted and follows previous agenda item.
b) VAT claim sent
c) Internal Auditors report together with actions required, circulated in advance of this meeting
6. Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) 2025-26
All documents circulated in advance of meeting.
a) Accounts approved by all Parish Councillors present and signed by the Chair.
b) Certificate of Exemption agreed by all Parish Councillors present and signed by the Chair and the Clerk/RFO.
c) Section 1 of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return agreed by all Parish Councillors present and signed by the Chair and the Clerk/RFO.
d) Section 2 of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return agreed by all Parish Councillors present and signed by the Chair and the Clerk/RFO.
e) Annual Internal Audit report 2025/26 agreed together with actions required on separate sheet, by all Parish Councillors present and signed by the Chair.
f) The notice of Public rights and publication of unaudited annual governance and accountability return for the year ended 31 March 2026. The inspection period must be 30 working days inclusive and must include the first 10 working days of July.
All Parish Councillors present agreed to the following
Date of announcement, 1 June 2026.
Start of inspection period, 9 June 2026.
End of inspection period, 20 July 2026.
The relevant documents must be posted no later than the day before the start of the inspection period which is 8 Jun 2026.
Meeting ended 18:45
Jane Brand
Clerk to Stoodleigh Parish Council
11/06/2026