On Tuesday I was given a full apology and thanks from the current Woodbridge Town Council for all the difficulty and sheer unpleasantness I was put through simply because I exercised the right of any concerned Woodbridge resident and asked to see and comment on the Town’s accounts 2017-18. Having seen them, I made an objection to the external auditors, because I was concerned about significant inaccuracy in Woodbridge Town’s AGAR (Annual Governance and Accountability Return). This happened back in July 2018.

It was nice to see this matter finally being discussed openly and proactively and with an intention of reaching a conclusion after so long.

You will be interested to know the external auditors upheld my simple factual objections to the Woodbridge Town 17-18 audit, which were that the past council failed to follow its own financial regulations. I had simply asked for the council to restate its AGAR and to say No to some statements where they had previously incorrectly said Yes.

I was told by the past council – and past council’s Mayor – that this could not be done and should not be done.   It was impossible – and impossibly expensive they declared. (At the time I had discovered from the external auditors that  it would cost the council less than £100 to conform to their own regulations in managing our money by restating their incorrect AGAR.)

This last Tuesday the locum Woodbridge Town Clerk confirmed it could easily have been done, and should have been done when new facts had been brought to the council’s attention.

The official External Auditors  have now delivered their final report. You can find it here https://www.woodbridge-suffolk.gov.uk/home/SearchForm?Search=Audit+2018&action_results=Go  This is a long document: their findings are at the end, Section 3: Auditors’ Final Certificate. They agreed with me:  the first three of the nine statutory AGAR assertions were incorrect: the Town Council said they had followed their own financial regulations, when they had not.  This report has, by law, to stay on the Woodbridge council website for 5 years.

That 18 month refusal to look reality in the face and act transparently has cost OVER THREE  AND A HALF THOUSAND POUNDS of your money. It has wasted many tens of hours of my own time. All because certain councillors (several now departed) could not bring themselves to admit they were wrong.

I was immensely surprised by the sheer anger my objection caused in some quarters. After all, it is perfectly possible for councils to make mistakes, and it is wonderful that people give up their time to volunteer as town councillors.

However, all that I asked for – and all that was needed – was that the past council corrected the assertions that they had signed off in May 2018, when they incorrectly said that the council had  followed their own financial regulations. And the council had not! 

Instead, I had to face months of deeply unpleasant language, behaviour and ad hominem remarks (both inside and outside council meetings and on-and offline). Never, in my 12 years as a County Councillor have I been treated as I was by (the past) Woodbridge Town Council in the year 2018-19. My GDPR was breached, my probity was brought into question. My status as a local resident was challenged – I who have lived and worked (and brought up a family) in Woodbridge for nearly 30 years. Emails remained unanswered. It was surprising, unprofessional, and truly shocking.

I felt this behaviour was intended to ensure that I withdrew my objections. It would also scare off anyone else from being brave enough to raise concerns in the future.

This attempt to silence objectors is not democracy – and is in itself a breach of our rights as voters.

Under the last council, too much was discussed behind closed doors.

Great thanks are owed to the current council for having the moral courage to bring such matters out into the open without fear or favour.

(You can find further details about this challenge in my blog December 2018 https://suffolklibdems.org/carolinepage/2018/12/16/whats-been-happening-in-december-2/ and in my annual report https://suffolklibdems.org/carolinepage/2019/05/09/whats-been-happening-2018-19-woodbridge-suffolk/ )