Meetings of Rawreth Parish Council take place at Battlesbridge Free Church, Hawk Hill, Battlesbridge SS11 7RE commencing at 7.30pm
Wednesday 6th March 2024
Wednesday 3rd April 2024
Wednesday 1st May 2024
Wednesday 5th June 2024
Wednesday 3rd July 2024
Wednesday 4th September 2024
Wednesday 2nd October 2024
Wednesday 6th November 2024
Wednesday 4th December 2024
Rawreth Parish Council Announcement
Following the cancellation of Rawreth Parish Council's Meetings on the 7th June, 5th July and 6th September 2023 the Parish Council can now officially confirm that the unsubstantiated, false and vexatious allegations made by a very small number of residents against the Parish Council and Clerk relating to financial irregularities have been proven to be as stated, unsubstantiated, false, and vexatious and rightfully the Parish Council strongly refuted all the allegations that were made. The Parish Council underwent an internal audit at the beginning of May, this was followed by an external audit by PKF Littlejohn who were appointed by the Audit Commission. PKF Littlejohn were made aware of all the allegations as were the Police and District Council. Under the Audit Regulations residents have the right to inspect the accounts during a given period of time, two residents requested to inspect the accounts and following their inspection raised 57 objections regarding the accounts and practices of the Parish Council, again for transparency PKF Littlejohn were made aware of and provided witu copies of the objections and the residents who raised them were given the opportunity to raise them as objections to the 2022-2023 Audit with PKF Littlejohn once they had received replies from the Parish Council, again for full transparency PKF Littlejohn were provided with a copy of the replies from the Parish Council to those 57 objections.
PKF Littlejohn advised the Parish Council on the 19th of September that all 57 objections that had been notified to them had been withdrawn by the two residents that raised them and that they had closed their Challenge Case, they also advised that upon carrying out their audit of the Parish Council 2022-2023 Audit they had concluded on the 15th of September that "on the basis of our review of Sections 1 and 2 of the Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR), in our opinion the information in
Sections 1 and 2 of the AGAR is in accordance with Proper Practices and no other matters have come to our attention giving cause for concern that relevant legislation and regulatory requirements have not been met" They further confirmed that " Other matters not affecting our opinion which we draw to the attention of the authority:
None" The 2022-2023 Audit of Rawreth Parish Council has therefore been concluded and the Notice of Completion has been issued and is displayed on the Parish Council Website and Parish Council Notice Board by Asda in Priory Chase.
The Parish Council can only apologise for the disruption that the cancellation of their meetings may have caused to other residents, but this was wholly necessary to allow the Parish Council to liaise and inform every relevant authority of the allegations that were made and to provide them with any information they needed. This whole matter has been treated very seriously by the Council due to the alarm , distress, illness and effect the malicious allegations have caused. The wellbeing of both Members of the Parish Council and staff must be protected and the Council will not tolerate any further threatening behaviour shown towards them or unfounded allegations and mistruths.
The Parish Council look forward to returning to normal working practices as soon as possible and welcoming residents back to meetings, they will not however tolerate confrontational, aggressive or threatening behaviour and will liaise with the Police if this happens