SHENSTONE PARISH COUNCIL
Serving Little Aston, Shenstone, Stonnall, Shenstone Wood End, Lynn, Parish Council Office 25C Main Street
Shenstone WS14 OLZ
Tel: 01543 481 947
e-mail: <admin@shenstonepc.pcwpreview.co.uk >
web: www.shenstone-staffs.gov.uk
Draft minutes of meeting of the Finance, Legal, Health & Safety Committee on Tuesday Nov 25th 2025 at Shenstone Community Library at 5.30pm.
1 Register of Members in attendance
Cllr Lesley Edgley (Chair), Cllrs David Salter, David Thompson & Phil Whitehouse.
Cllr Chris Jones ( non-voting)
2 Acceptance of apologies.
Cllrs Alan Pugh &Simon Fisher
3 Public Participation.
Members of the public are invited to address Council for a maximum of 15 minutes. None
4 Declarations of interest.
Members should consider whether they should partake in any discussion or vote on matters on the agenda unless they have a dispensation: None
5 To accept and confirm minutes of the last Finance, Legal, Health & Safety Committee meeting on Tuesday 16th Sept 2025.
Approved & signed.
6 Finance.
Current financial position as of Tuesday 25th Nov 2025.
Unity Account £16,164.96. Nat West Current Account
£905.40. Nat West Business Reserve £38,823.52. Nat West Liquidity Account Ring Fenced funds for ear marked projects £85,522.04.
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Transactions for approval. All shared. No questions from Members.
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Consideration of current financial position against budget and forecast.
Full details were shared with members, and the Clerk answered several questions, providing as much detail as required.
RECOMMENDATION: Fully approved for proposed resolution at Council.
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Agree Precept recommendation 2026/27
In addition to the expected 4.5% increase on predicted spend there was a long discussion about additional likely expenditure, including newsletter costs and pension & staffing costs.
RECOMMENDATION: Precept increase of 18.40% to £251,000.
Cllr Whitehouse highlighted the importance of looking at the individual lines in the budget to assess whether savings could be made.
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Agree breakdown of ring-fenced funds.
The Clerk gave a breakdown of the origin of the funds held in the Liquidity Account and the ring-fenced funds that were earmarked for projects.
Cllr Thompson made the following recommendations:
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That the apportioned CIL and precept funds for Little Aston, Shenstone & Stonnall be called “The Capital Project Fund”.
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That the CIL is apportioned according to the Neighbourhood Plan area that accrued the CIL. The Precept is apportioned in accordance with Parish ward apportionment or the households within the three Neighbourhood Plan areas.
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The Neighbourhood Plan steering group/Councillors elected inside the three areas to consult with their Neighbourhood Plan residents and determine capital project priorities.
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Bidding for further resources to be carried out either collectively and/or separately depending on the funding source and offer.
Cllr Whitehouse agreed in principle but said Council should reserve the right to amend these guidelines in exceptional circumstances. All agreed.
RESOLUTION: The recommendations were approved with three votes in favour and one abstention. However, one Member has since retracted his vote in favour following further consideration, so the resolution is not carried.
7 Review of Financial Committee Terms of Reference.
Deferred
8 Banking authority: agree authorisations.
The Clerk has contacted the Banks to notify of change of Finance Officer & signatories. Awaiting documentation.
9 Lengthsman contract: agree next steps.
It was agreed that Council need to look at the Lengthsman operation with a view to one person working 2.5 days per week and a second 2 days per week for no less than 44 weeks per year. RECOMMENDATION: Move forward to Employment Committee.
10 A.O.B.
LDC Strategic CIL 2025.
It was agreed that an application should be submitted for circa £60K to pay for a Speed Indication Device (SID) and SID platform. The application will be completed as soon as possible to go to Council for approval on Dec 9th and submission before the 12th of Dec deadline.
Cllr Thompson will also be applying for “Clean & Green” funding on behalf of Council.