THE leader of Yeovil Town Council (YTC) has responded after a member resigned amid claims of “fiscal irresponsibility” and “systemic failures in governance and transparency” at the authority.

Former Liberal Democrat councillor for Wyndham, Ashley Richards, made the claims as he stood down from the authority and came after YTC’s accounts were unable to be signed off by an external auditor, as they did not have time to review them before a deadline top publish a report.

However, now, leader Cllr Andy Soughton (Lib Dem, Westlands) has issued a response to the claims, which he calls “very unfair to our staff” and blames the delays on changes to the finances amid ‘devolution’ from Somerset Council – which has the town authority take on extra responsibilities.

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The statement from Cllr Soughton, leader of Yeovil Town Council, read in full:

“Yeovil Town Council uses Internal Audit, including detailed ‘drains up’ investigations, to ensure that the highest standards of care are taken with public money.

“Cllr Richards has characterised this as political and indicative of a systemic loss of control. That is very unfair to our staff.

“I want to set the record straight and to re-assure the public and our staff.

“The Internal Auditor’s Report (available on our website) covers the period of ‘devolution’, where there was a huge step change in Yeovil Town Council’s finance workload.

“The Internal Auditor stated: “…this is not unexpected given the scale of the changes undertaken by the Council in order to preserve valued services.”

“The report points out that Yeovil Town Council initially under-staffed the finance team and prioritising day-day operations meant a backlog built up.

“We were late making the previous year’s accounts available for public inspection due to external factors. They were produced, but not available to the public for public inspection until July 18, 2024 (18 days later than the statutory date).

“We recognised the staffing issue and fixed it.

“The Internal Audit found that under this pressure some expenditure had been recorded against incorrect account codes.

“Importantly, no money was lost, and our robust internal audit process identified and corrected these errors.

“Most importantly for taxpayers, the Internal Auditor confirmed there is no material misstatement in the accounts.

“Recommendations to prevent recurrence and improve future quality have been agreed upon, with many already implemented.

“While some minor errors were identified, they have had no impact on tax charges or service delivery.

“This is not a story of chaos; it is the council being very serious.”

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