General
Bedale Town Council is a small local authority funded largely by public money. The Council is responsible for ensuring that its business is conducted in accordance with the law and proper standards, that public money is safeguarded and properly accounted for, and that its business is run economically, efficiently and effectively.
The Clerk to the Council acts as the Council’s advisor and administrator and is the Responsible Financial Officer for administering the Council’s finances.
The Council's main source of income is the Precept which is collected on its behalf by Hambleton District Council through the council tax system. Bedale Town has a population in the region of 3,000 adults and the precept for 2019-20 is £64,264.
The council works to an annual budget, which is usually set in November of the previous year. The 2019-20 budget is available here:
Annual Return
The Annual Return summarises the previous year's financial activity. It is subject to internal audit by an independent accounting professional, and submitted to the External Auditor, who for the 2018-19 accounting period is PKF Littlejohn LLP.
Annual Return documentation is shown here:
- Bedale TC AGAR 2018-19 submitted to external auditor
- BTC Internal Audit Report 2018-19.pdf
- Bedale TC Bank Reconciliation 31 March 2019.pdf
Public Rights
During the annual period of exercise of public rights - which in 2019 is 17 June to 26 July - any person interested has the right to inspect and make copies of the accounting records for the financial year to which the audit relates, and all books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers, receipts and other documents relating to those records will be made available for inspection by any person interested. For the year ended 31 March 2019, these documents will be available on reasonable notice as detailed below:
Information from the National Audit Office about public rights is available here.
Audited Accounts
Once the external auditor has completed their review of the annual return, it is made available for inspection by any local government elector living in Bedale. This process takes place around the end of September.
