Your parish council is here to represent the needs and wishes of the local community, with responsibilities for facilitating and delivering certain services to the community it serves. These include, but are not limited to, provision and maintenance of community transport schemes, traffic calming measures, leisure facilities, street lighting and cleaning, tackling social nuisances such as fly-tipping and provision of allotments and opens spaces.
The council are also called upon as statutory consultees for local planning applications and can be represented at public inquiries.
New laws governing the conduct of elected members in local government in England came into effect on 1st July 2012: with local (parish and town) councils required to have their own local codes of conduct. From 1 July 2012, members of parish councils have new mandatory obligations in the Localism Act 2011 regarding the disclosure of pecuniary interests. For further information, please refer to the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) website.
Details of your local and regional councillors can be found under the Councillors page.
Council Meetings
Tunstead & Sco-Ruston Parish Council meets on the third Tuesday in all months except December at 7:30pm, with the Annual Parish Meeting taking place on the third Tuesday in April or May. Any member of the public can raise a matter with the Council, although there are certain formalities which must be adhered to should members of the public wish to speak during meetings. Members of the public are always welcome to observe Council Meetings. All meetings are held in the Portakabin® on the recreation ground.
Public Participation takes place during the first half-hour of the meeting; the duration of the Public Participation may be extended at the discretion of the Councillors. Should you wish to attend a meeting of the council to raise any matter to be included on the agenda, you will need to inform the Parish Clerk or Chairman at least eight days before the meeting. Although this might seem a long time in advance the council is required to publish its agenda at least three clear days (this does not include the day of publication, the day of the meeting and Sundays) before each meeting.
Contacting the Council
Any inquiries concerning Parish Council matters should be referred to the Clerk of the Parish Council (Jimmy) via email [email protected].
Transparency
Under the Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities, we are required to publish our Certificate of Exemption, confirming income and expenditure was less than £25,000 in the year to 31st March. Our Accounts are audited internally to assess risk and compliance. The relevant documents are below, together with the Auditor’s Reconciliation and Explanation of Variances.
2022/23 Year End
Certificate of Exemption 2023
Annual governance statement 2023
Accounting statement 2023
Explanation of variances 2023
Bank reconciliation year end 2023
Expenditure over £100 2023
Responsibilities of councillors
Provision for the exercise of public rights 2023
2021/22 Year End
Certificate of Exemption 2022
Internal audit report 2022
Annual governance statement 2022
Accounting statement 2022
Explanation of variances 2022
Bank reconciliation year end 2022
Expenditure over £100 2022
Responsibilities of councillors
Provision for the exercise of public rights 2022
2020/21 Year End
Certificate of Exemption 2021
Internal audit report 2021
Annual governance statement 2021
Accounting statement 2021
Explanation of variances 2021
Bank reconciliation year end 2021
Expenditure over £100 2021
Responsibilities of councillors
Provision for the exercise of public rights 2021
2019/20 Year End
Annual governance statement 2020
2018/19 Year End
Annual Return and Governance – Tunstead Parish Council 2017-201Internal Auditor Bank Rec & Variances
2018/19 Year End
The Annual Return for the year can be viewed here:
The Exemption Certificate for the year can be viewed here: