North Thoresby, Grainsby & Waithe Villages

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16/04/2025

The investigation into the Parish council by the government appointed External Auditor is apparently ongoing. This is the AGAR, that every council in the country must do annually, and it's purpose is to ensure good governance and prevent fraud. Our current council is refusing to respond to a Freedom of Information request to find out who has access to our bank account, which will obviously not be well received by the auditor.
The External Auditor has the power to order a judicial review of the councils activities if it suspects fraud or money laundering

11/04/2025

In March 2024 (as their minutes state) the parish council elected Lynne Gale to be both Chair and Acting clerk/Responsible Financial Officer and Colin Goodwin to be Vice Chair, and since December 2024 Colin Goodwin has taken it upon himself to be both Chair and acting clerk/Responsible Financial Officer. I have emailed them to point out that this is to prevent fraud and is unlawful, but they have not even bothered to respond.
To ensure I was correct, I asked a government appointed external authority for confirmation, and their response was
"Legislation identifies two officer holders:

(1) The RFO – the relevant statute is section 151 of the LGA 1972 – this appointment is a mandatory statutory requirement and it may be carried out by unpaid members of the Council (although the PG guidance at para 5.11 states that ‘proper segregation of duties means that the Chairman of the authority or of the Finance Committee should never be appointed (even on a short-term basis) either as Clerk or as RFO’); and
(2) The Proper Officer (usually known as the Clerk) – the relevant statute is section 112 of the LGA 1972 – this appointment may be done by a local council and it may be carried out by unpaid members of the Council (although the PG guidance at para 5.11 states that ‘proper segregation of duties means that the Chairman of the authority or of the Finance Committee should never be appointed (even on a short-term basis) either as Clerk or as RFO’.)"

So every financial transaction since February 2024 is fraudulent - which is possibly why Colin Goodwin (Chair) and Keith Butters (Vice Chair) scrapped the parish council's "Anti Fraud and Corruption Policy and Procedure" in May 2024

This is the summons and agenda to a Parish Council meeting for tonight, 7th April 2025. First off, it is not a lawfully ...
07/04/2025

This is the summons and agenda to a Parish Council meeting for tonight, 7th April 2025. First off, it is not a lawfully called meeting because the person calling it is not named, nor has the public been given sight of any official document where an Acting Clerk has been named (you will recall that in contempt of the Local Government Act 1972, Colin Goodwin unlawfully called previous meetings). He hasn't posted any council minutes online since December 2024 yet is still paying £180 of our money every month to someone for "webmaster payments". The "update" on the AGAR he talks about is the very important subject of instructions from the government appointed External Auditor on February 19th that he's been ignoring
It would also be good to know why they are going to "approve the 2025 2026 budget" when they have already done that last month at the March meeting, when they didn't have a Responsible Financial Officer and then submitted the precept to the ELDC

These are the instructions sent by the government appointed External Auditor to the Parish Council on 19th February, tel...
07/04/2025

These are the instructions sent by the government appointed External Auditor to the Parish Council on 19th February, telling them they had to call a full council meeting to address the objections and supply supporting evidence. They've ignored them. There is a item on tonight's agenda to "update the council on the 2023/24 AGAR but (1) this is more than an "update" and (2) the meeting has not been lawfully called because there is no name on summons. I've sent information and evidence to the SBA email address, and I'll start uploading information here too. I should point out that this only applies to the first 2 months of 2024 - they're going to have a field day when they start looking at the last 12 months (probably starting out with why Goodwin binned the council's "Anti Fraud and Corruption Policy and Procedure" in May 2024.
I've sent various pieces of evidence to the EA but not the council, so we'll see how much they're going to lie about this!

TEXT OF MESSAGE FOR CLARITY

Dear Ms Davis

Further to our email below, please could you collate and take to a full Council meeting for approval the Council’s formal response to the accepted objections along with relevant supporting documentation (or links to it). The accepted objections are as follows:


Objection 6: You object to the Issues that occurred during the period of inquoracy during 2023/24 in relation to the council website and records, including storage on a councillor’s business storage platform rather than the Council’s own.

Comments: We note that this objection relates to the response given in Assertion 2 of the Annual Governance Statement

Conclusion: We accept this objection for further consideration.



Objection 11: You object to the Box 9 figure in the AGAR, which you assert is based on an inaccurate asset register

Comments: We note that this objection relates to items of account in the Accounting Statements

Conclusion: We accept this objection for further consideration.



Objection 12: You object to the appointment of the internal auditor, whom you assert is not independent or competent, who carried out the internal audit work in relation to the 2022/23 AGAR during 2023/24 and in relation to the 2023/24 AGAR during 2024/25

Comments: We note that this objection relates to the response given in Assertion 6 of the Annual Governance Statement

Conclusion: We accept this objection for further consideration.



Objection 13: The fact that the internal auditor was not provided by the current Council with the relevant accounting records and proposed 2024/25 budget paperwork that had been prepared during 2023/24

Comments: We note that this objection relates to the response given in Assertion 6 of the Annual Governance Statement

Conclusion: We accept this objection for further consideration.



Objection 16: You object to the Box 6 figure which you assert is missing transactions relating to Southern Electric/ WAVE/ the village hall manager from March 2024

Comments: We note that this objection relates to items of account in the Accounting Statements

Conclusion: We accept this objection for further consideration.



Objection 17: You object to the Box 4 figure which includes payments relating to locum clerk/RFO when none had been appointed

Comments: We note that this objection relates to items of account in the Accounting Statements

Conclusion: We accept this objection for further consideration.



Objection 20: You object to payments to and refunds from the former clerk/RFO are not included in the accounting records for 2023/24 which may impact on the Box 4 figure

Comments: We note that this objection relates to items of account in the Accounting Statements

Conclusion: We accept this objection for further consideration.



Within the response, and in respect of the accepted objections only, please address the detailed concerns raised by the objector in their original objections (attached). Please note that if approval of the formal response is carried out in a public session, the objector’s identity must be protected in discussion and redacted in the agenda papers.


Please include the following supporting information in addition to any evidence that the Council wishes to submit:


Details of the financial regulations and standing orders in respect of the storage and retention of council information and documents.
Copy of the fixed asset register as at 31 March 2024, including details of when this was last reviewed and updated.
Evidence of the approval of the appointment of the internal auditor during the year ended 31 March 2024, including the consideration of the independence and competence.
Evidence of the agreed scope of work of the internal auditor during the year ended 31 March 2024.
Details of the payments made to a locum clerk that are included in the Box 4 figure, including evidence of the approval of the appointment of a locum clerk.
Details of all payments to and refunds from the former clerk/RFO during the year ended 31 March 2024, along with evidence of the inclusion of these amounts within the reported figures.
Evidence of the approval for the above payments in respect of the former clerk/RFO


Please submit this response and supporting evidence to us (copied to the objector) by email by 4 April 2025; this date can be flexed if necessary to fit in with the Council’s meeting schedule.



Kind regards

Kerry

Kerry Cutting | Director | Engagement Lead

PKF

04/04/2025

There is a reason why there has been no posts on here for a while - and said reason will soon become apparent

13/02/2025

Going by the number of views of this page, people want to know what's going on with the parish council.
They still do not have a Proper Officer, who is the only one who can summon a parish council meeting.
The Local Government Act 1972 Schedule 12 Part II sections 10 2(a) (2b) (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1972/70/schedule/12)
"a summons to attend the meeting, specifying the business proposed to be transacted at the meeting and certified by the proper officer of the council"
The law enacted by Parliament in 1972 does not say that Goodwin is a special case and can call a parish council meeting if he wants to - so Goodwin is clearly and deliberately breaking the law, and Cllr Orrill's claim before he resigned that Goodwin is contemptuous of the law is perfectly correct.
So this is an unlawful parish council meeting, and to summarise -
(1) Cllr Goodwin does not have the lawful authority to call a parish council meeting - the LGA 1972 specifically states it MUST be called by the Proper Officer
(2) The parish council has had no Proper Officer (Clerk/RFO) since December 2024
(3) It is impossible to call a meeting to elect an Proper Officer because you need a Proper Officer in order to call that meeting in the first place
(4) Cllr Goodwin has repeatedly called a parish council meeting in his name alone, despite knowing he does not have the authority to do so.
(5) The parish council's financial regulations specifically state that the financial affairs of the council must be managed by the RFO, therefore the financial matters that Cllr Goodwin has added to the agenda cannot be discussed or decided because there has been no RFO to "administers the council's financial affairs in accordance with all Acts, Regulations and proper practices" (Financial Regulations 1.9 point 2)
(6) Due to (5) above, any payments since December 2024 they approve are not only unlawful, they constitute fraud under the Fraud Act 2006. Any councillor or person appointed to the council by the ELDC have gained access to the parish bank account and the £38,000 that we pay in Rates, and are unlawfully voting to approve these payments is conspiring to commit fraud under section 13 (4) of the Fraud Act 2006 - a significant criminal act.
(7) The agenda calls for the minutes of the 4th November 2024 to be approved. This is impossible, as not only has Cllr Goodwin unlawfully called this meeting, he was not there and the meeting was Chaired by Cllr Butters. Since then every other councillor apart from Cllr Bakes has resigned, so there is now an insufficient quorum of councillors who were present at that meeting to vote on the minutes. Apart from the fact that the whole meeting is unlawfully called, any councillor or person appointed by the ELDC to make the parish council quorate could lay themselves open to accusations of misconduct in public office and conspiracy to commit fraud under the Fraud Act 2006.
(8) Cllr Goodwin isn't even competent enough to date this unlawful summons to a parish council meeting

Goodwin seems to think that he can call this summons by saying it is an EOM. But through gross incompetence he's added other items to the agenda that can only be there if you have a Proper Officer (this is their own Financial Regulations that he himself brought in in May last year) - but he hasn't got one, because the last one along with 4 other parish councillors refused to be associated with him any longer and resigned weeks ago.

Goodwin, Butters and Bakes will, of course, continue with the meeting because they are indifferent to the law and the parishioners - but by attending they are taking active and positive steps to conspire to commit fraud under the Act, and that is an undeniable criminal act that carries a custodial sentence.

17/12/2024

The notice of the resignations of Cllr Willerton and Cllr Bunn have been posted on the council noticeboard but not on the official council website (but as Colin Goodwin and Keith Butters haven't posted the minutes of the last 4 meetings, nor details of any financial transactions since 30th September, nor that the council is without a Proper Officer and no longer constitutes a legal parish council, and that they say the next parish council meeting is going to be held 15 days in the past, that is hardly surprising). There are rumours of outright fraud and theft within this council, so the reasons for these resignations I am sure would be appreciated by the vast majority of people in the village.

10/12/2024

It was asked on one of the village FB pages about how to see copies of the minutes of parish council meetings, neither Goodwin nor any of the others on this corrupt, shambolic and dishonest council have responded about why they haven’t published what are legally required documents and why previous ones have either been deleted or replaced, nor how to obtain them, this is the law and the situation as it currently stands…

The situation is an incredible mess because, as the Local Government Act states, by law a parish council MUST have a clerk/RFO and a Chair or it doesn’t exist as a parish council and it’s just a group of people with access to the parish bank account. The August meeting was called by Jill Davis before she was acting clerk using a fraudulently dated document, so the meeting when they appointed her acting clerk was unlawful – meaning there hasn’t been a lawful council since July. Despite this Colin Goodwin et al have continued to pay her and spend our money on Shaw, Knight etc so she has committed fraud and the rest of the council have conspired to commit fraud (and this is a legal fact, whether they like it or not).

Jill Davis and Cllr Bunn resigned at the unlawful meeting on 2nd December, and Goodwin should then have done what every other parish council does (and as he should have done in July) and call an EOM with the single purpose of electing one of their number to act as clerk/RFO – he didn’t do this.

Also, following numerous requests for information the council have finally adopted a Scheme of Publication (as required by the ICO) which is dated 19th November 2024. However, even though it is a requirement of that actual scheme of publication, they have published no minutes demonstrating it was approved at that meeting (although, as per the Local Government Act, it has been an unlawful parish council since July so it doesn’t have any legal standing anyway).

Minutes available online have either been deleted, illegally replaced or not published at all, and the agendas for meetings no longer match the minutes of meetings, but there are options available if you want a copy (but make sure you request a SIGNED copy and check that the name at the bottom is that of the person who was actually Chair at the time). Normally you would email a request to the clerk or the acting clerk that has been voted in following the steps that should have been taken by Chairman Colin Goodwin, but as he hasn’t done his job there is no clerk – but as the Chair, Colin Goodwin is still the person responsible for ensuring that the council conducts its business in a lawful manner.

Note that the law states that signed hard copies of the minutes of all parish council meetings (including those discussing confidential matters) must be retained for a minimum of 5 years, and these were in a series of folders in the village hall office on the 30th January 2024.

Note also that because they are signed, they also come within the remit of the Data Protection Act and GDPR, so they cannot simply claim they have been destroyed or stolen, or get someone else to assist with any Freedom of Information request – it has to be either the acting clerk or the Chair.

So, as there is no acting clerk, make a Freedom of Information Request to Colin Goodwin at [email protected] requesting a SIGNED copy of the minutes of the meetings you require (if possible, use the Wayback Machine to cross check dates etc.). Copy that email request to [email protected] (he is the Vice Chair and chaired the 4th November meeting and will have signed the minutes of the 7th October meeting). The copy you receive will have the signature blanked out but will state who Chaired that meeting.

He then has 30 days to respond. If he does not respond you can then complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. If you are not happy with the response you get from Colin Goodwin you can then follow the advice on the ICO website on the next steps to take.

The other option is that you make a formal complaint to the Monitoring Officer at the ELDC ([email protected]) about breaches of regulations and the parish council’s Code of Conduct by Colin Goodwin with respect to the fraudulent document calling the August meeting that was published on 11th July but signed 31st July, and his failure to call an EOM for the council to appoint one of their number as acting clerk (name the specific breaches of the code). You can also complain that he has not ensured the minutes of the last 4 meetings, including approval of financial transactions, have been published. The ELDC are then required to contact him and start an investigation.

06/12/2024

Waiting to see what comes of the council's agenda item of reporting the theft of a filing cabinet from the office (in light of their previous false claim that the police had been contacted about the supposed theft of documents from the office). Particularly as they can no longer be bothered to post the minutes of parish council minutes, Jill Davis has resigned from yet another council after paying herself several hundred pounds (see the minutes of Dishforth parish council), and they are not even a lawful parish council because the call to the August meeting is a fraudulent document that was signed by Davis on the 31st July and posted on the 11th. There are still outstanding investigations being conducted by the External Auditor, and this shambles of a council has cost the people of this village several thousand pounds.

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North Thoresby
Coningsby

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