Dear Sir,
I attended the Extraordinary Meeting of Great Aycliffe Town Council on 28th June 2012. I’m pleased to advise that the District Auditor gave yet another ‘unqualified’ report on the Council’s accounts.
In common parlance an ‘unqualified’ report means there are no issues or concerns raised during the course of the audit and the finances are well managed. The Auditor praised Dan Austin, Finance Officer, on producing clear, unambiguous accounts and also praised the Council on achieving year on year tight financial controls.
It was disappointing that only five Independent Councillors were in attendance at this important meeting – a meeting where the Councillors are afforded the opportunity, once a year, to question the person who has undertaken a comprehensive audit of the Council’s finances.
In the last five years I’ve attended numerous Council meetings (probably more than some of the sitting Councillors) and during that time I cannot recall any questions being raised by the Independent Councillors on any financial issues relating to the mid term financial plan, the balance sheet or budgets, save for an embarrassing question as to what the figures in brackets represented on the balance sheet.
Almost five years ago, in the run up to the last elections, the Independents promised the townsfolk to half the Council Tax precept and make significant savings in the running of the town. I strongly suspect that the Independents have catastrophically failed to keep their promises to the electorate.
Jed Hillary
Ross Walk
