Editing Openai/68c0109a-3744-8002-80a6-138182f7ddda (section)

=== Assistant: That detail strengthens your concerns and opens the door to formal scrutiny or legal challenge. ===
That detail strengthens your concerns and opens the door to formal scrutiny or legal challenge.

Let’s walk through what this means and what you can do:

==== ### ====
* The new council took office in May 2024 (likely following parish elections).
* A new Chair was elected at the first meeting of the new council in May 2024.
* The previous Chair and Vice Chair did not stand for re-election.
* But they did not issue a formal handover, nor did they appear to recognise or participate in the transition.

===== #### =====
* The outgoing council may have acted beyond their legal authority, especially if they passed financial approvals (like the AGAR).
* The new council may have had to reapprove the AGAR, but didn’t (possibly because the records were never properly handed over).

====== - Governance breakdown ======
* Possible deliberate obstruction or cover-up
* A lack of lawful continuity, potentially invalidating records, minutes, or approvals from April 2024

====== - There was no valid Chair to sign off the AGAR in May (or no legitimate AGM to do so). ======
* Financial documents may have been approved without full authority.
* The AGAR for 2023–24 may not exist, may be incomplete, or may have been submitted late or improperly.

==== This is no longer just a question of paperwork—it may now involve: ====
* Breach of statutory duty under: - Local Government Act 1972 - Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015
* Breach of transparency rules under: - The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 - Transparency Code for Smaller Authorities
* Potential financial misconduct (or a cover-up of past issues)
* A failure of democratic transition between outgoing and incoming councillors

==== ### ====

Ask them to investigate the following concerns:
* No lawful AGM in May 2024
* Possible unauthorised approval of the AGAR by an invalid Chair or during an invalid meeting
* Absence of a formal handover between outgoing and incoming Chair/Vice-Chair
* Whether the 2023–24 AGAR was properly submitted at all

📧 Email: councilaudits@bdo.co.uk
📎 Include evidence (e.g. image of the April "AGM" minutes, email from the RFO, timeline)

===== They are legally responsible for ensuring ethical and lawful conduct by parish councils. =====

Ask them to:
* Investigate the failure of transition
* Advise whether any decisions made in April/May 2024 are legally valid
* Assess governance risk and loss of public confidence

📧 You can email: monitoring.officer@iow.gov.uk<ref>{{cite web|title=monitoring.officer@iow.gov.uk|url=https://chatgpt.com/share/monitoring.officer@iow.gov.uk|publisher=chatgpt.com|access-date=2025-11-18}}</ref> or contact via Isle of Wight Council website

===== If public trust has been broken: =====
* Consider raising the issue in local media, Facebook groups, or at parish meetings
* Ask the new council to commit to a full internal audit and republication of AGARs from 2023 onward

==== : ====

Would you like help writing to BDO LLP or the Monitoring Officer right now? I can give you a ready-to-send version in under 5 minutes.