Oakham Town Council Sets a 19.5% Budget Increase

Oakham Town Council Sets a 19.5% Budget Increase

The budget meeting was better than recent meetings held by Oakham Town Council,
despite The Chairman Cllr Michael Haley just wanting to rush through everything as
normal.

It was good of Cllr Joyce Lucas to ask for the meeting to be extended so we did not
have to rush.

There was also no water, Since we reversed a financial regulation to take back control
of the councils finances the Clerk Allison Greaves and The Chairman have both concluded
the Clerk can not spend the petty cash with out full council consent it is getting rather
stupid. First it is stamps and now its water what next? There was never a problem when the
financial reg was previously in place. It is just a case the Clerk and Chairman want to be able
to pay bills running into thousands of  pounds without bringing to council by claiming it is emergency expenditure. If an emergency happens like a tree falling the clerk can still
authorise work if she consults with two members. She still has petty cash. Possibly she needs
to seek permission to top it up, but I don't know of any organisation that would require
consent for spending petty cash, they might have guidelines and a upper limit when
it comes to spending petty cash and not the nonsense we now have.

I cant wait for this chairman's term to end. He constantly fails to follow the rules.
Councillors are meant to receive all papers at least three days before a meeting,
its the law and so we can carefully consider them.

At last nights meeting we were shown a document on the screen which was different from
the one sent out to us. the one sent to us did not include all the information we required.
Such as the reserve situation and the predicted spending for the rest of this financial year.
The papers show Cllr Peter Ind's name as part of the Financial Working Group
with Cllr Michael Haley. Working groups can not be made up or work with one Councillor.
Cllr Ind has been out of the country, so once again we find Cllr Haley is working on
his own.

Another three page document was tabled at the start of the meeting. The content
of this was challenged by Cllr Nick Woodley. I had seen it before and voted against
it at a previous meeting because the content is not correct. Iam not sure what Cllr
Woodley find wrongs, Cllr Haley refused to discuss it at the meeting. Cllr Woodley
has worked in accounts investigation outside of council life.

At a previous meeting we rejected Cllr Michael Haley's draft budget. At this
meeting our six month rule was ignored.

We carefully went through each heading and made some changes.

If the figures are correct we now know the council has earmarked reserves
of £72,000 and general reserves of around £120,000

The Council has agreed to increase one budget heading because of Rutland
County Council halting the town centre improvements it is hoped we will
buy new bins and benches and maybe paint the tatty street lights.

I voted against the budget due to some of the headings demanding money
even though this years budget was largely under-spent and no evidence
could be provided to prove an increase was needed for the next year.

Video to follow.