Finance & General Purposes Committee

To All Members of the Finance & General Purposes Committee

Dear Councillor

Notice is hereby given that a meeting of Pontesbury Parish Council, Finance & General Purposes Committee will be held at The Pavilion at 6.00pm on Thursday 5^th November 2026 and members are hereby summoned to attend for the purpose of transacting the following business.  

Caroline Higgins

Responsible Financial Officer

AGENDA

1. TO RECORD ATTENDANCE AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST AND DISPENSATIONS
   1. To receive declarations of interest from councillors on items on the agenda

(Members are reminded that they are required to leave the room during the discussion and voting on matters in which they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest, whether or not the Interest is entered in the Register of Members’ Interests maintained by the Monitoring Officer.)

1. 1. To grant any requests for dispensation as appropriate
2. MINUTES OF COUNCIL - To approve the Minutes of the Finance & General Purposes Committee Meeting held on 28^TH May 2026 (attached)
3. PUBLIC QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS – 15 minutes will be allowed
4. REVIEW SCHEME OF DELEGATION – To confirm that the Deputy Clerk has delegated authority to spend up to £500 within agreed budgets, including using the Equals debit card, without prior consultation and automatic authority to spend to the Clerk’s delegated budget whilst acting as Clerk in her absence.  All spending under delegated authority to be reported to the next Council meeting for retrospective approval.

1. REVIEW INTERNAL CONTROLS POLICY – Revised draft attached for adoption

1. STATUTORY FINANCE

1. 1. 2026-27 reserves –
      1. Play Area Inspections reserve - To approve a transfer of £300 to the Play Area Inspections reserve to cover the additional 6 monthly inspections by Shropshire Council between October 2025 and March 2026 (Minute 52.25.3). (N.B. Inspection fees have been wrongly charged and payment is on hold pending a corrected invoice).
      2. Website Reserves – To approve the transfer of the Pavilion website reserve (£700) into the Website Review reserve and close the Pavilion Website reserve to reflect the decision to merge the two websites into one Parish Council website.

1. 1. Direct debits – To authorise a direct debit for HMRC to collect the correct amount of tax and national insurance on the appropriate date to avoid the accretion of small credit amounts due to early payment.

1. 1. VAT Partial exemption calculation – 2025-26 – To approve calculation and confirm exemption limit has not been exceeded

1. 1. Budget monitoring – To note and review actual income and expenditure against budgets and identify any predictable significant variances at year end. (Forecasting report attached)

1. INVESTMENT STRATEGY –
   1. To consider the Council’s approach to assessing risk, setting upper limits for investments and procedures for monitoring credit ratings. 
   2. To consider the capacity, skills and access to information for members and officers responsible for making investment decisions
   3. To consider a draft strategy for the management of investments with reference to Government guidance (draft investment strategy and guidance attached)
2. DATE OF NEXT MEETING – Thursday xxx December 2026 at 6pm (budget discussion)