1 Apr 2025 – Finance Meeting (Minutes)

GREAT SANKEY PARISH COUNCIL
Finance Committee

Minutes of meeting: Tuesday 1st April 2025
Whittle Hall Community Centre

Chair: Cllr T Williams
Present: Cllr S Pennington
Cllr N Cotter
Cllr C Lynas

In Attendance: K Carter (Clerk)

1. To receive and approve any apologies for unavoidable absence.
There were apologies from Cllrs Watson & Simpson.

2. To approve the minutes of previous meeting 4/3/2025.
The draft minutes were moved and accepted as a true record of the meeting and signed as
such.

FINANCE/2025/32: To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 4th March 2024 as a true
record.

3. To consider draft policies on council investment & reserves
The draft policies were reviewed and recommended for acceptance by full council.

FINANCE/2025/33: To recommend adoption of the draft Reserves Policy and the draft
Investment & Borrowing Policy.

The following was also discussed and agreed:
• To review the level of general reserves which are held for unanticipated events or
emergencies. The Joint Panel of Governance and Accountability (JPAG) advises that an
appropriate level is around 3 months expenditure for authorities with income &
expenditure in excess of £200,000. GSPC currently maintains a general reserve of
£100,000; this to be reviewed during the budget setting process in October 2025.
• To consider an investment strategy for council monies, both earmarked reserves and the
operating balance.
o Earmarked reserves are monies set aside for defined projects or for significant
known expenditure and may be built up over a period of time to reduce the impact of
significant expenditure in any one year. The council currently has around £170,000
of earmarked reserves set aside for the Parish Playing Field drainage and Sankey
Station projects. It was suggested that it would be prudent to contact WBC for
details on their current investment terms and discuss moving earmarked reserves to
this fund at a future meeting. In the meantime, it was proposed that the council open
an Instant Access account, linked to the council’s Current Account with Unity Trust
as soon as possible. Whilst this gives a relatively low interest rate (around 2.25%)
the council will receive some return on the funds whilst considering other options.
o The council will receive the precept of £622,671 in April. Some of this will be moved
to earmarked reserves and the remainder forms the council’s operating costs for the
year. It was suggested the council could consider spreading some of these funds
into various fixed term and easy access savings pots for part of the year and benefit
from the returns on these. This is to be considered further.

FC/2025/14
6.5.25
Chair’s Signature:
GREAT SANKEY PARISH COUNCIL
Finance Committee

Minutes of meeting: Tuesday 1st April 2025
Whittle Hall Community Centre

• Finally, members discussed whether to set up a separate Investment Committee but
agreed to manage this within the Finance Committee at present.

FINANCE/2025/34: To review the level of General Reserves during the budget setting process
for the financial year 2026-27.

FINANCE/2025/35: To investigate terms for investing Earmarked Reserves with WBC. To
move Earmarked Reserves to an Instant Access account through Unity Trust Bank in the
interim.

FINANCE/2025/36: To consider options for investing a proportion of the council’s operating
costs in various fixed term and easy access accounts during the financial year.

4. To be informed of changes to procurement regulations.
The Procurement Act 2023 and Procurement Regulations 2024 have replaced the Public
Contracts Regulations 2015. This does not significantly change procedures for GSPC as it
mainly affects contracts over £30,000. The council will still need to use Find a Tender, the
digital platform for public contracts, to advertise such contracts, but will need to re-register first.

5. To scrutinise financial expenditure arising since the last meeting, including payments
by Direct Debit.
A list of payments to be made had been circulated prior to the meeting. The following
payments were considered and approved.

Amount,
Presented By Description
£
Rialtas Software loaded onto PC £30.00
Impact Graphix Park signs & café banners £854.40
Impact Graphix X 3 signs for wildflowers £306.00
Zurich Café PLI Insurance £78.99
Top Print Jpeg artwork for Fun Day 25 £30.00
Meadow Mania Grass seed £538.48
All Steel Fencing Fencing – TP £1686.00
Options Pensions Pension payment £356.29
Trade UK Staff safety work wear £56.98
360 Landscapes 3 tonne top soil – TP £180.00
B&B Hygiene Ltd Cleaning supplies £421.09
Cheshire Constabulary PCSO Q4 24 – 25 £10,235.00
WBC Refuse collection 360ltr TP – 25 to 26 £608.92
WBC Service Charge – Hood Manor £382.89
WBC Refuse collection 660ltr BB – 25 to 26 £752.44
WBC Refuse collection 660ltr WH – 25 to 26 £752.44
WBC Refuse collection 660ltr WH – 25 to 26 £689.52
WBC Refuse collection 660ltr TP – 25 to 26 £752.44
Trade UK Fence paint – Grounds £32.00

FC/2025/15
6.5.25
Chair’s Signature:
GREAT SANKEY PARISH COUNCIL
Finance Committee

Minutes of meeting: Tuesday 1st April 2025
Whittle Hall Community Centre

Holly Oak Tree Cherry Tree removal £1,020.00
Trade UK Materials – Grounds £18.85
Ross Safety Wear Staff Work Wear £30.13
SLCC SLCC Membership renewal £380.00
MKM Line marking spray paint £25.94
MKM Hire of lawn scarifier £155.84
MKM Tarmac postcrete £347.22
MKM Coloured tie battens £124.03
Agrovista UK Ltd X 2 Tonne TD5 £412.80
Carl Mullin Reimbursement – plumbing tool £21.59
Equals card Petty cash top-up £595.90
Peter Watson Chairs Allowance £20.00
Canda Copying Copier Rental April 25 – June 25 £94.80
B&B Hygiene Ltd Cleaning supplies £461.38
Tom Taylor Co Website hosting Sept 24 – March 25 £1269.00
Tom Taylor Co Website hosting Sept 23 – August 24 £2160.00
TOTAL £25,881.36

FINANCE/2025/37: To authorise all payments listed (under LGA 1976 s19 or LGA 1972
s15(5), s101, 111, 112, 133, 142 or 137).

The following direct debits on the Council’s account during February were also checked:

Novuna 03/02/2025 Electric Van Lease 456.20
SSE Energy 03/02/2025 GAS HM 227.30
SSE Energy 03/02/2025 GAS WH 150.01
SSE Energy 03/02/2025 GAS BB 266.79
SSE Energy 03/02/2025 GAS HL 107.25
Lex Autolease 03/02/2025 Council Electric Van Lease 851.98
Water Plus 03/02/2025 Water charges BB 79.91
Water Plus 03/02/2025 Water charges HM 50.95
Water Plus 03/02/2025 Water charges WH 80.38
BT 06/02/2025 WIFI/Telephone ALL 281.32
Peninsula 11/02/2025 H&S Service H&S 200.93
SSE Energy 11/02/2025 Electricity WH 1634.12
Global 4 Communication 14/02/2025 Office 365/email Office 106.38
Water Plus 19/02/2025 Water charges HL 101.70
Water Plus 19/02/2025 Water charges TP 77.13
WBC 28/02/2025 January Business Rates TP 96.00
WBC 28/02/2025 January Business Rates HM 61.00
WBC 28/02/2025 January Business Rates BB 52.00
Utility Warehouse 28/02/2025 Mobile phones Office 53.40
Service Fee Charge 28/02/2025 Service Charge Office 16.20
TOTAL £4950.95

FC/2025/16
6.5.25
Chair’s Signature:
GREAT SANKEY PARISH COUNCIL
Finance Committee

Minutes of meeting: Tuesday 1st April 2025
Whittle Hall Community Centre

6. To consider any quotes received and authorise or make recommendations to full
Council where appropriate.
There were no quotes.

7. To consider requests for financial assistance.
There were no new requests, but members were updated with progress on refunds from the
GoFundMe Appeal for the Friends of Tim Parry Park. A total of 22 applications have been
made. Three were contacted for clarification; 2 have been subsequently verified and the
refunds authorised, 1 is still outstanding. To date, £680 of refunds have been issued.

8. Budget 2024-25: to scrutinise documentation and when satisfied as to correctness to
sign off financial reports and bank reconciliations for February.
The bank reconciliation and budget monitoring pages for February were considered and
accepted. Checks on financial transactions were carried out prior to the meeting by Cllrs
Simpson and Cotter.

FINANCE/2025/38: To accept the bank reconciliation and budget monitoring pages for
February 2025 (Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 reg 4).

9. To authorise payment of wages, tax and ERNIC for March.
The list of wages to be paid was considered and authorised. Total Employment Costs
(including salaries, pensions & HMRC) were £24,547.66.

FINANCE/2025/39: To authorise payment of wages and HMRC costs (£24,547.66 total) for
March 2025 (LGA 1972 s112).

FC/2025/17
6.5.25
Chair’s Signature: