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CHEPPING WYCOMBE PARISH COUNCIL
Finance and General Purposes Committee
Members of the council are summoned to attend the meeting to be held on Thursday 2 October 2025 at 7.30pm
at the Council Office, Cock Lane, Tylers Green, High Wycombe Bucks HP10 8DS
The meeting is open to members of the public and press
Committee membership: Cllr A Barron – Chairman Cllr C O’Leary
Cllr I Forbes – Vice-chairman Cllr R Wilks
Cllr L Willis Cllr C Dodds
Cllr H Darch Cllr N Thomas
Cllr K Griffiths Cllr L Webb
Cllr D Johncock (ex-officio) Cllr K Wood (ex-officio)
AGENDA
- Apologies for absence
Schedule 12 of the Local Government Act 1972 requires a record be kept of the Members present and that this record form part of the minutes of the meeting. Members who cannot attend a meeting should tender apologies to the Clerk.
- Declarations of members’ interests in agenda items
To receive any pecuniary or non-pecuniary declarations of interest and confirmation of any relevant dispensations.
- Under the Localism Act 2011 (sections 26-37 and Schedule 4) and in accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct, Members are required to declare any interests which are not currently entered in the Member’s Register of Interests or if he/she has not notified the Monitoring Officer (Clerk) of it.
- Should any Member have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in an item on the agenda, the Member may not participate in
consideration of that item unless a Dispensation has first been requested (in writing) and granted by the Council.
- Delegated Actions
- Staff Matters
- Staff Absence Report
- Cleaner Position
- Recruitment of Groundsman
- Health & Safety Report of any incidents
- Policies and Procedures
- Financial Regulations
6.1.1 Increases to transfer limit between accounts and delegated expenditure limits
- Risk Register
- IT Security Policy
- Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG)
- Community Board
- Investing – CCLA
- In-house Auditors
- Grants
- Publicity
- Annual Return and Governance Statement
- Budget
- Precept Timetable
- Council Finances (Period 5) August
- Committee Finances (Period 5) August
- Community Infrastructure Levy
- 5 Year Plan
- Questions from council members and the public
- Accounts for payment
AGENDA ITEM 3
Delegated Actions
Members are asked to NOTE that since the last committee meeting the Clerk has instigated the following delegated action:
Vehicle trackers for insurance purposes at a cost of 38.00/month this will cover the Transit, Isuzu and both Kubota vehicles. As a gesture of goodwill our first 3 months are free.
AGENDA ITEM 4
Staff Matters
4.1 Staff Absence Report
Members are asked to RECEIVE a verbal report from the clerk on the sickness absence of staff since the last committee meeting in April.
4.2 Cleaner Position
Members are asked to NOTE that Mr Kingsland has resigned from the position of cleaner with effect from the end of August 2025. A new cleaner has been found.
4.2 Recruitment of Groundsman
Members are asked to NOTE that an additional groundsman has been recruited, and his start date will be 6 October.
AGENDA ITEM 5
Health & Safety Report of any incidents
Members are asked to NOTE that there have been no incidents since the last committee meeting in April. The last notified incident was on 25 March 2025, therefore being incident free for 127 working days as at the date of the agenda.
AGENDA ITEM 6
Policies and Procedures
Members are asked to CONSIDER and, if so minded, RECOMMEND for re-adoption at the next full council the following policy documents.
6.1 Financial Regulations NALC-model-financial-regulations-2025.pdf
6.1.1 Increases to transfer limit between accounts and delegated expenditure limits
As requested at the last committee meeting the Regulations were checked and members are now asked to
CONSIDER and, if so minded, RECOMMEND to Council the following increases:
Transfer between accounts from £20,000 to £25,000
Delegated expenditure APPENDIX A
- Clerk’s delegated authority to increase to £2,000
Clerk and Chairman to increase to £3,000
Committee to increase to £3,000 (to £10,000)
5.18 Emergency expenditure to increase to £3,000
6.2 Risk Register
Following the last committee meeting work was undertaken to the Register to bring it in line with our insurance company, members are asked to CONSIDER and, if so minded, RECOMMEND to Council its approval. APPENDIX B
6.3 IT Security Policy
Members are asked to CONSIDER, and if so minded, RECOMMEND the IT Security Policy from the working group. APPENDIX C. Members are also asked to CONSIDER for recommendation to Council the following agreed actions by the working group:
- Cybersecurity Training:
- All staff and councillors to complete this free course by the National Cybersecurity Centre as mandatory training. Top tips for staff – Overview.
- Mock phishing test to be arranged by Redsquid for all staff and councillors.
- Depending on the results of the phishing test, more comprehensive cybersecurity training via NALC to be offered to councillors. This is not free.
- All councillors to receive “cwpc.org.uk” email addresses:
- At present, councillors are asked to set up a personal email account when they join the council to be used for council correspondence. These email addresses are published in our newsletter to residents where we invite them to reach out to councillors individually.
- However, we have no control over the security of each councillor’s email account. This is a problem when we publicise these email addresses to residents, who may be sharing personal data with councillors
6.3.3 Costs:
Microsoft Exchange Online Plan 1
Mailbox size: 50 GB per user
Features: Email, calendar, contacts, anti-spam, and anti-malware protection included and backup for one year
Price: £6.50 per user/month against an annual licence
Recommended Security Add-On (Optional but valuable)
To strengthen email protection beyond the standard filtering:
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 1
Protects against: Phishing, malware, malicious links, and attachments
Adds features like: Safe Links, Safe Attachments, and real-time threat detection
Price: £ 2.00 per user/month against an annual licence
To set this up and deploy to users, this would cost an extra one-off fee of £200.00, to ensure the councillors policies and testing is rolled out effectively.
Monthly Cost Per User: £8.50
Total Monthly Cost: £144.50.
Total Annual Cost: £1734 (+ £200 one off deployment cost)
Members are asked to NOTE that the Microsoft Portal is part of the Intune platform and acts as a secure gateway for users to access approved apps and corporate resources.
For councillor mailboxes, this means:
- Only compliant devices can access Outlook and other Microsoft 365 services.
- You can restrict access to corporate data if a device falls out of compliance.
- Councillors can install approved apps securely without needing admin rights.
- IT administrators can monitor device health and enforce policies centrally.
This can be integrated as part of the onboarding process at no extra charge.
AGENDA ITEM 7
Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG)
Members are asked to NOTE the minutes from the last NAG meeting held on 30 June 2025 APPENDIX D.
Members are asked to NOTE that the next meeting is due to be held on 2 October at 7pm at the Tylers Green Village Hall.
AGENDA ITEM 8
Community Board
Members are asked to RECEIVE a report from Cllr Barron on the new Community Board.
AGENDA ITEM 9
Investing – CCLA
Members ae asked to note that the parish council has invested £250k invested with CCLA and we are receiving around 4.2% investment return; amount currently in our account – £254,748.60. We receive quarterly investment reports on the stock market from CCLA.
Members are also asked to NOTE that CCLA have been taken over by Jupiter Asset management for £100 million.
AGENDA ITEM 10
In-house Auditors
Members are asked to REVIEW the requirement for in-house auditors.
AGENDA ITEM 11
Grants
Members are asked to CONSIDER and, if so minded, RECOMMEND to Council a request from Flackwell Heath Bowls Club for a contribution of £10,000 towards the replacement of the drainage ditches surrounding the green. APPENDIX E
Members are also asked to CONSIDER and, if so minded, RECOMMEND to Council a request from Tylers Green Community for a 50% contribution of £366.00 towards a replacement flagpole. APPENDIX F
AGENDA ITEM 12
Publicity
Members are asked to NOTE that the newsletter is finally out for delivery.
AGENDA ITEM 13
Annual Return and Governance Statement
Members are asked to NOTE that the Annual Return and Governance Statement has been returned, and the audit is complete. No issues financially, however, a box was missed on completion of the form Section 1 box 9 and Section 2 boxes 11a and 11b relating to Trust Funds.
AGENDA ITEM 14
Budget
14.1 Precept Timetables
Members are asked to NOTE that the next cycle of committee meetings will be the start of the new financial year budget setting process. The committee budgets will be taken to the next Finance & General Purposes committee meeting in December before final approval by full Council on 18 December. Proposals for this committee need to be with the Clerk by 19 November. This allows time for any minor changes prior to 30 January when the precept request needs to be with Buckinghamshire Council.
Members are asked to NOTE that the second and final precept payment for this financial year in the sum of £236,234.32 was received in the bank account on 19 September 2025.
Members are asked to NOTE the attached APPENDIX G relating the precepting levels. Our Band D is currently £68.97.
14.2 Council Finances (Period 5) August
Members are asked to NOTE the summary of the Council’s yearend position. APPENDIX H
14.3 Committee Finances (Period 5) August
Members are asked to NOTE the Committee’s yearend position. APPENDIX I
14.4 Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)
Members are asked to NOTE that the budget line for CIL currently stands at £66,904.02. These funds are to be used
for community benefit and need to be spent within a timeframe as below:
£14,112.44 2025/26
£31,767.33 2026/27
£7,975.22 2027/28
£13,049.03 2028/29
14.5 5-Year Plan
Members are asked to NOTE the 5-year plan and make any suggestions for additional projects. APPENDIX J
AGENDA ITEM 15
Questions from council members and the public
A maximum of fifteen minutes will be given to members of the public, who may make representations, ask and answer questions and/or give evidence in respect of any item of business included in the agenda. If the chairman of the meeting agrees, representations and questions may be taken at the beginning of the meeting. Members of the public wishing to speak at the beginning of the meeting should inform the Clerk of this request as soon as possible.
AGENDA ITEM 16
Accounts for Payment
Accounts for payment are to be circulated at the meeting for consideration by councillors.