075 9559 8995

clerk@chd-pc.gov.uk

Draft Minutes for the Parish Council Extraordinary meeting

Corscombe, Halstock and District Parish Council

Draft Minutes for the Parish Council Extraordinary meeting

11th June 2025 7.30pm

Meeting to be held at Corscombe Village Hall.

Councillors present: Richard James (RJ). Nigel Clarke (NC), Roger Hallett (RH), Deborah Childs (DC), Garry Arnold (GA) David Hallet (DH), Freda Hennessey (FH) Paul Worthen (PW),  and Helen Sherwood  (HS)

0 members of the public were present.

The meeting started at 7.30pm and was chaired by the chairman Cllr. James.

  1. To receive and accept apologies and declarations of interest.

Apologies from Cllr. Fry, Cllr. Lovegrove and Cllr. Grant

  • To agree the council’s response to the report of the Internal Auditor (A)

Proposed Cllr. James, seconded Cllr. R Hallett     Approved 9/9

  • To approve the 2025/2026 governance statement Section 1 AGAR form 3 (B)

Proposed Cllr. Clarke, seconded Cllr. Arnold    Approved 9/9

  • To approve the 2025/2026 Accounting statement Section 2 AGAR form 3        (C)

Proposed Cllr. D.Hallett, seconded Cllr. Hennessey    Approved 9/9

  • The responses to the Internal Audit report were discussed and approved 9/9

Key points from internal Auditor.   –

  1. The internal audit for 2025/26 has now been completed in accordance with the provisions of the Practitioners’ Guide and the CIPFA code of internal audit practice. Based on the sample testing carried out at this audit visit, all of the Council’s current financial controls reviewed during the testing appear to be operating effectively with the exception of: Test N: Publication I checked to see that the authority had complied with the publication requirements for the prior year AGAR. I noted that the website audit trail confirmed that the accounting statement 24/25 had been published on 04/07/25. It should have been published before 25/026/25 which was the start of the Council’s public rights period. As a result, I have responded ‘no’ to this test.
  2. Test O: Assertion 10 – Digital and Data Compliance During the year the requirements of the Council’s Annual Governance Statement Assertions and of the Annual Internal Audit Report were expanded to include assurances and testing around Digital and Data. As a result, I have carried out new testing in this area. I found that whilst the Council is now compliant in relation to all requirements, two of these were not carried out before the start of the 25/26 financial year: – The email address on an authority owned domain was not set up until 25/26; and – The IT policy was not adopted until 08/04/26. As this was not in place for the start of the 26/27 financial year, this will also impact on the 26/27 assessment of assertion 10. As a result, I have responded ‘no’ for this test.

  • Community Land assets statement was discussed and agreed to remove the wording Cost proxy value    from the  line “cost of acquisition” as we do not know the land value at this point.  Approved 9/9
  • The Clerk was thanked for all her work in getting the Audit passed.

The meeting closed at 8.45 pm

Copies of appendices can be found on the website or can be requested from the Clerk.

Clerk to the Council: Tessa Safadi, Tel: 07595598995  Email: clerk@chd-pc.gov.uk

Appendix