Financial Year 2022/23
Parish Councils spend public money and consequently their finances are scrutinised closely by both an Internal and External Auditor. The process for the last financial year (2022/23) is well underway. The Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) has been completed and Sections 1 and 2 were approved by Councillors at their 19th June 2023 meeting and signed off.
The Internal Auditor approved them at around the same time and the documents now go forward to the External Auditor who conducts his own examination.
The Internal Auditor's Report and Certificate (AIAR) and Sections 1 and 2 of the AGAR can be viewed below. The AGAR is available for inspection by any local government elector in the area of Charlwood Parish Council. For details of how to apply, click on the 'Public Rights Notice' files below.
The process for the Parish Council to agree a budget for the financial year that started on 1st April 2022 - and the precept demand that goes with it - began the previous November, in 2021. The precept is the amount the Council asks the District Council - Mole Valley - to add to Council Tax bills to cover the cost of paying for the local services in the Parish.
Projected spending by the Parish Council over the 12 months starting in April 2022 amounted to £106,134 and this resulted in a precept request to Mole Valley District Council of £75,298, a 2% increase compared to a year ago.
At that time the Parish Council Clerk reported: The Parish Council is anticipating some significant expenditure in the coming year. Considerable improvements are required at both the Hookwood and Charlwood playgrounds and those sums could easily run into six figures. 2022/23 will also see measures imposed to deal with one of the prime issues affecting the villages of Charlwood and Hookwood: namely combating the traffic problems that plague both on a daily basis.
On top of the annual expense of maintaining the Pavilion, Recreation Ground and Millennium Field in Charlwood, as well as the Withey in Hookwood, the Parish Council will spend funds on improving the surface of the Recreation Ground (at the western side) to enable a junior football pitch to be installed there.
The cost of all these initiatives will undoubtedly mean that the Parish Council will be forced to call on its Reserves to fund them. The Reserves have been building for a number of years, to be used for significant expenditure such as that detailed above.
The budget document can be viewed by clicking on the link below.
*New: The Parish Council has today (Tuesday 23rd May 2023) published its Draft Annual Accounts for the year. To view them click on the link below.*