Becoming more self appointed than elected.

At the all up elections in 2016 of the 13 vacancies 9 were filled because 9 candidates stood. The other 4 seats were left vacant and filled by co-option. That means 9 councillors elected and 4 co-opted. With the resignation of Crocker and Sawford that is another 2 elected members down and 2 more up for co-option.

When these 2 co-options goes through that is 7 elected and 6 not elected.

Ain't democracy great!

Not a full audit and is a limited assurance review

Smaller authorities are subject to a limited assurance review, which is not a ‘full’ audit, and is proportionate to the size and undertakings of the authority. Auditors review the authority’s annual return (consisting of an annual governance statement and statement of accounts) in accordance with guidance issued by the NAO on behalf of the Comptroller and Auditor General. Their work does not constitute an audit carried out in accordance with International Standards on Auditing and does not provide the same level of assurance.

Therefore the Auditor just does a limited assurance review. More here...

Still acting illegally

I see John Vickery has now gotten around to publishing the notice giving residents their rights to inspect the accounts 5 days after the original date. Except where is the Annual Return? No doubt this will be published the day after the closure of the right to inspection.

Ron says: What a cock up. Expect worse after 6 extra councillors are added.

Why hasn't CPC published its Annual Return

Why hasn't Cambourne Parish Council published its Notice of Public Rights and Publication of Unaudited Annual Return? This must have been published before 3rd July 2017. As of 6th July 2017 this hasn't been published on the website or the Noticeboard outside the Parish Council. This is unlawful. What is wrong at Cambourne Parish Council?

The National Audit Office says:

All smaller authorities are required to publish their annual return locally, including on a website. Certain types of smaller authorities that do not have their own websites must still inform the public of the inspection period on a website, but this website does not have to be their own. It must, however, be publicly accessible without having to register or pay. Parish meetings can do the same, or advertise the inspection by putting up a notice in a conspicuous public place in the area of the authority for at least 14 days. All smaller authorities must also publish details of the dates they have set for the inspection period. This must cover the ‘common inspection period’ of the first 10 working days of July.

What the CPC Internal Auditor said....

In a good report there were a few problems the Internal Auditor came up with. These are:

Not only is the Council required to publish all payments over £500, but also the following:

The Constitution

Standing Orders

Financial Regulations

Code of Conduct

Complaints Procedure

Register of Interests of Councillors

All this is easy to resolve by publishing all these in a section of the website.Yet CPC doesn't do this.

Next:

Payments are being made before the payments have been approved by Councillors. This is wrong. This is because what the Parish Council is doing is against their own Financial Regulations. What is the point of having Financial Regulations approved by the Council and not followed by the Council?

Cambourne Parish Councillors broke their own Code of Conduct!

The CPC Code of Conduct says:

 3.8 do nothing that causes the Authority to act unlawfully. 

Which Councillors broke the law:

What did they do?

The Parish Councillors authorised the delay beyond 3rd July 2017. This is beyond the start of the common period of rights.

What could the Councillors have done?

There was nothing to stop the Councillors holding a Special Council Meeting before 3rd July 2017 to comply with the law.

CPC acting illegally again!

Today (3rd July 2017) must be the first day of the commencement of the period for the exercise of public rights as this is the latest date. Cambourne Parish Council, The Councillors and the Parish Clerk are all acting illegally.

The law states the following:

Commencement of the period for the exercise of public rights

(b)the first 10 working days of July of the financial year immediately following the end of the financial year to which the statement relates, where that authority is a Category 2 authority.

What does this mean? The law requires a 30 day period for the public to inspect the accounts. There must be a common 10 working day period. . The common period of inspection for the 2016/17 annual return is 3rd to 14th July 2017. The earliest commencement date of the 30 working day inspection period is 5 June 2017 and the latest commencement date is Monday 3 July 2017.

By hopefully approving the accounts on 4th July 2017 the Parish Council is acting illegally because:

a) CPC has not approved the accounts before the common inspection period commenced.
b) CPC has not allowed for the inspection period to include the common 10 working days.

Ron says: It seems Cambourne Parish Council can just ignore laws meant to protect residents rights. One law for CPC another for the residents.

More Councillors?????

Yep! South Cambs District Council has decided the number of Councillors for CPC will rise from 13 to 19. The chaos increases in 2018.

What a waste of a Special Council Meeting!

John Vickery summoned the remaining Parish Councillors to a Special Council Meeting to be held on 20th June 2017. The main reason was to approve the Annual Return which must be approved by 30th June 2017.

The outcome was the approval of the Annual Return was delayed until at least 4th July 2017 after the cut off date.

Ron says:What was the point of this Special Council Meeting. The item was deferred to 4th July meeting. The only reason I can think of is: by getting the Council to defer the approval of the Annual Return it is now the Councillors fault and not that of John Vickery. This is basic administration and is going very wrong.

Simon Crocker on what the new Chairman must do!

Simon Crocker has stood down as Chairman of the Parish Council and, subsequently, resigned as a Parish Councillor. He left the Chairmanship with 11 "Pearls of Wisdom".

Lets look at these "Pearls of Wisdom":

This is wrong. The purpose of the Chairman is to chair the meetings of the Council. It is a simple as that. The Chairman is not the leader of the Council. Nor is he an executive leader taking decisions on his own. 

This is very TRUE.

Hmmm. Back in 2015, as Chairman, Simon Crocker decided not to use his casting vote to make decisions.

This is very TRUE.

Also TRUE.

Also TRUE. 

Here we go. Cambourne Town Council with a Town Mayor and all the regalia. Why? Must be Cambourne wants to become a big Council. Ron says NO.

Also TRUE.

This is wrong. The whole point of having a Committee system is these are powerful committees which are needed. Otherwise don't have committees and do everything through the Council.

Oh the Parish Plan. I can see why the Parish Plan needs pushing through as there are some large expenditures in this plan. 

In his day job Simon Crocker is the Parish Clerk for Caldecote Parish Council. Of course he would want John Vickery to keep his job. The last thing the Council should do is make John Vickery a CEO. Not something that is recognised in law. And NO to the Town Council.

And they are off.....

Both Simon Crocker and Jenni Sawford have resigned as Parish Councillors. Another couple of co-options on the cards.

The General Election 2017

The General Election has been a bit of a rollercoaster. At the start the Conservatives had a 24% lead in the polls over Labour. This looked like a landslide for the Conservatives. The polls were likely to tighten over the election campaign as the Labour tribe started to come behind Corbyn.

The Conservatives seemed to be running a "give them enough rope" election by staying pretty silent and letting Labour et al do the work for the Conservatives. The big problem came with their manifesto and the so-called "Dementia Tax". Yet the "Dementia Tax" is an option for the way forward in paying for "Social Care".

In South Cambridgeshire Heidi-Hi should win. I predict this will be with a reduced majority. The Liberal Democrats have been fighting a better campaign carrying on from the Mayoral Election where the Liberal Democrats came first under some calculations. If you want to give Heidi-Hi the old Heave-Ho then vote Liberal Democrat.

Who am I voting for. I will be voting Liberal Democrat. For one reason. I want my MP to have substantial roots in the community they serve. Heidi has a rented house in Steeple Morden paid out of parliamentary expenses whilst jointly owning a house in London and a house in St. Albans. Her business is in Welham Green. Whilst Heidi has a house in the constituency it is on the boundary and nearest in the constituency to her properties and business.

Terrorists for Jez.

After the Manchester bombing some of the Corbynistas thought the Conservative Government had done all this to give the Conservatives a boost in the polls. How about this for an alternative scenario. Jez has terrorist friends in Hamas, Hezbollah, IRA to name a few. Jez wants to get out of wars and conflicts and get rid of our armed forces. Jez doesn't want a "shoot to kill" policy. The terrorists may therefore think that Jez is their man. Get Jez in power and the UK becomes impudent. When Cameron wanted to bomb Syria because Assad was gassing his own people the UK parliament said no and then so did the US. Knock the UK out and other will follow.

I'm not saying Jeremy Corbyn or Labour is co-ordinating terrorists. What I am saying is the Islamic Terrorists, looking at this election, could see that Jez as PM would be a boon for them out in the rest of the world as the UK and the other nations retreat from intervening in foreign countries.

The General Election result.

The Conservatives will win. By how much is the question. It isn't beyond reason that Theresa would end up with a majority of 12. I predict the percentage numbers will be Conservatives on 45% and Labour on 31%. This will give the Conservatives a majority of @100.

South Cambs will be retained by the Conservatives.
Cambridge will be retained by Labour.