Finance!

Dalton Piercy Parish Council has a duty to manage its finances with care - after all, this is public money!

It has adopted Financial Regulations and other relevant policies to ensure the effective mangement of our financial resources. Click here to view:

Financial Regulations

Depreciation Policy

Expenses Policy

Setting the Budget

At the Annual Parish Meeting, members of the public, as well as parish councillirs, have an opportunity to make suggestions as to what activities they consider the Parish Council should undertake in the next few years; if the majority present approve of the proposals, this then becomes the Parish Plan.

The Clerk produces an Annual Budget, which includes the costs of administering the Parish Council's affairs as well as those activities Councillors wish to undertake in the following years, usually derived from the Parish Plan, although occasionally other items may be added if deemed important.  Some of these are regular features, such as cutting the grass around the village, others may be irregular occurences, such as refurbishing the pond. The budget identifies the likely costs of each item,(based on research), grouped under relevant headings, and allows for inflation/cost of living increases.

Funding for the proposed expenditure is mostly derived from income from activities undertaken on behalf of the Borough Council, for which the parish is paid - known as a Concurrent Payment, from grants and from the Precept - the tax paid by residents to support the parish. The precept amount is calculated by deducting the projected income from Concurrent and grant income from the total expenditure. This figure is then forwarded to the Borough Council in the form of a 'Demand' (HBC cannot refuse to give us this amount; they share the cost across all households in the parish).

Managing the money

Ensuring that the management of the Parish Council's limited finances is done as transparently as possible, the Parish Council receives from the Clerk/RFO, monthly reports on all transactions which have occurred since the previous meeting, as well as an update against the annual budget. 

Copies of these reports may be seen here:

Annual Budgets as set by DPPC

Financial Transactions

Actual against Budget

Year End

At the end of the financial year, the Annual Accounts are normally submitted to External Auditors appointed by the government, in the form of an Annual Return; it includes statements from the Parish Council as to the effectiveness of their governance and the accuracy of the financial information provided.  Now, however, under the Transparency Code, if a parish council has a turnover of less than £25,000, the Annual Return is simply posted on its web-site. The External Auditor will sample a number of smaller council Annual Returns and may  require us to have a full audit, for which we have to pay!

At Dalton Piercy, we appoint an independent Inernal Auditor to check all the information provided is accurate, and adds up correctly!  His/her report is submitted to the Parish Council before the Annual Return is signed off by the Chairman, and forms part of the Annual Return.