Council Meeting
12 December 2024
Review of Council Policies – Financial Regulations

1. The Council’s Financial Regulations have always been based on national
model templates produced by the National Association of Local Councils
(NALC), with allowable variations to take account of local practice and
procedure. A new updated version of the NALC model was published in April
2024 and was recommended to all parish councils by NALC and subsequently
to all Suffolk parish councils by Suffolk Association of Local Councils (SALC).

2. The model cannot simply be approved and adopted as there are many
alternative practices and procedures which comply with the accounting rules
and which require to be selected/deleted to suit the practices of the particular
authority.

3. A working group comprising the Chairman of the Strategy, Policy and Finance
Committee together with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Council and
the Clerk (the Responsible Financial Officer), have been through the model
line by line and selected options and wordings which suit the Council’s
financial structure and practices. In a number of cases, current financial
regulations have been updated and improved. The resultant document, which
is attached to this agenda, is recommended to Council by the working group
for approval and adoption.

4. It is RECOMMENDED that the NALC model financial regulations 2024 as
amended by the working group and attached to this report be approved and
adopted as the East Bergholt Parish Council Financial Regulations, to be
reviewed in a year’s time.

Graham White
Parish Clerk
2 December 2024