Parish council wages bill is £75,000 a year
A PARISH council with only four members of staff — one of them part-time — has an annual wages bill of more than £75,000.
Combe Martin Parish Council paid out £75,958.97 in wages between April 1, 2009, and March 31, 2010.
The figure was revealed after a Freedom of Information request was made to the council.
The council employs a full-time clerk, two full-time workmen and a part-time administrator.
Combe Martin Parish Council has been accused of secrecy by some villagers over the way it shows details about finance to the public.
The council publishes a flyer which is delivered to householders and includes the statement of accounts.
This year the flyer reveals the parish council's expenditure was £180,197 and the income was £164,928.
But the figure of £75,958.97 is not specifically mentioned in a pie chart on the flyer when the council explains how much it has paid out.
At a recent full council meeting, resident Clare Mountain asked why the figures in the FoI request did not tally with the statement of accounts.
Speaking at the meeting, council clerk Michelle Beaumont said: "The statement of accounts includes all the income and expenditure for the parish council but the FoI was on selected items.
"The items are quite separate and it is impossible to reconcile the two."
Combe Martin Parish Council chairman Julia Clark said: "If you (Mrs Mountain) want to make an appointment at an agreed time we can go over this in detail."
Parish councillor Peter Spencer said the internal and external auditors approved the accounts of Combe Martin Parish Council.
He said: "I am pleased to see a parishioner taking such a careful interest in the affairs of the parish council. I hope Mrs Mountain stands for the next election and is able to confirm her interest on a formal basis."
He also said: "The council is not going forward because we are paying so much attention to questions of this matter."
Mrs Clark said: "I agree we seem to be spending an inordinate amount of time and then a number of people start to ask why this and that has not been done."
The FoI request also showed Combe Martin parish received an income of £75,040.03 from car parking, of which £64,793 was from pay and display meters.
Comments
by Name Supplied, Combe Martin
Tuesday, August 31 2010, 1:06PM
“I would suggest that it would have taken a mere moment to answer this question and that the council has spent (wasted?) an inordinate amount of time seeking to avoid doing so.
It would seem that in an age where all levels of government expenditure are becoming increasingly transparent that Combe Martin Parish Council are expending a great deal of time and energy actively seeking to buck this trend and conduct it¿s business in a veil of secrecy. My understanding of the National trend for transparency is to promote trust from the electorate, to whom it is accountable. This obviously raises the question of why our Council is doing the direct opposite?”