Finances

The Council has detailed Financial Regulations and a detailed Tendering and Contracting Procedure.

Council Finances are managed and monitored through the Council’s Finance Committee. It regularly reviews procedures to ensure that the council achieves good practice in relation to its finances.

This Committee discusses the Annual Budget for presentation to the Council for approval. The Budget includes recommendations as to the level of precept (the portion of the council tax that the Town Council needs for its activities) that it will require Herefordshire Council to collect on its behalf. It also reviews income and expenditure on a quarterly basis (for up to date accounts, as presented to the Finance Committee, please click here) and ensures that the council is achieving value for money in relation to its expenditure. All meetings of the Finance Committee are open to the public.

The Council views Value for Money in a broad sense. Value for Money does not mean lowest cost, but fair costs, reflecting the key issues noted in its policies on ethical purchasing, environment and sustainability and local economic well-being in its preference for purchasing from local suppliers.

The Council’s designated Responsible Finance Officer is the Town Clerk, Liz Kelso.

The Town Council is required to produce Annual Accounts, which are available to view or download from this website. Requests for further information about the accounts is covered by the Council’s scheme for enquiries under the Freedom of Information Act: click HERE for our Freedom of Information document.

Each year the Town Council prepares an Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) which needs to be reviewed by an external auditor appointed by Smaller Authorities' Audit Appointments Ltd. As a local elector or an interested person, you have certain legal rights in resepct of the accounting records and can inspect accounting records and related documents. If you are a local government elector for the area to which the accounts relate you can also ask questions about the accounts and object to them.

Any interested person, which includes but is not limited to local electors, can inspect the accounting records for the year to which the audit relates and all books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers, receipts and other documents relating to those records. There is a 30 working day period, called the "period for the exercise of public rights" during which you can exercise your statutory right to inspect the accounting records. The Notice of Public Rights and Publication of Unaudited Annual Governance and Accountability Return for the year ended 31st March 2023 has now been published and can be found below.