Pointing this out to the External Auditors.

I wrote the following to the External Auditors:

Hi,

I am pointing out the following with reference to the Annual Return. I understand of the law is as follows:

The authority needs to ensure that the accounting statements are signed by the RFO and approved by the authority, by the latest date in order for the RFO to comply with the duty to commence the period for the exercise of public rights so that it includes the first ten working days of July.

At a Special Council Meeting 20th June 2017 the following was decided:

4. ANNUAL RETURN 

The Parish clerk requested that the Annual Return be deferred to the next council meeting as the internal auditors are scheduled to visit the Parish Office on Tuesday 27th June 2017. It was: RESOLVED that the report be received and this item be deferred until the next scheduled Council meeting on 4th July 2017.

I further understand the common dates for the first ten days of July started on 3rd July 2017.

On the 7th July 2017 the Notice of Public Rights and Publication of Unaudited Annual Return was published on their website and on their notice board outside their Offices. No annual return was published with the notice. This document was dated 30th June 2017. 

As there is no minutes for the council meeting of 4th July 2017, as of writing, I have no idea whether the accounts and governance statement have been approved by the Council and certainly weren't on 30th June 2017.

I therefore feel Cambourne Parish Council has acted or is acting illegally because:

1. The approved Annual Return has yet to be published.

2. The Annual Return was not approved before the commencement of the first 10 working days of July. Start date is 3rd July 2017.

3. The Notice of Public Rights was not published until day 5 (7th July 2017) of the first 10 working days of July even though it was dated 30th June 2017.

I received the following reply:

Thank you for your email. From the information that you have provided, the Council has not complied with the statutory requirement to approve and publish Sections 1 and 2 of the Annual Return before 3 July. It has further failed to make proper provision during the year 2017/18 for the exercise of public rights. These points will both be reported in our external auditor report on the Annual Return.

We will be contacting the Council to inform them of these issues. Your name will not be used in the correspondence.