An investigation into the events surrounding a settlement payment of more than £64,000 to a former clerk has found financial regulations were not followed by Hadleigh Town Council and has recommended new appropriate systems are put in pace for the future.

Carol Bailey, who was the Hadleigh town clerk between 2006 and March 2019 was paid £64,541.29 as part of a settlement agreement, while legal fees in relation to the transaction, took the total bill to taxpayers to nearly £69k.

Problems started to surface when Mrs Bailey made allegations of bullying by individual councillors against her going back to October 2017. The clerk was accused of acting without authority in suspending a Neighbourhood Development Plan working group, None of the complaints were upheld by the district's monitoring officer.

Meanwhile, a vote of confidence was tabled by former councillor Angland in Mrs Bailey in February 2018, which was carried by a majority vote. The clerk went on sick leave and her post has since been taken up by a series of locum clerks, with Cheryl Tye currently filling the post on a part-time basis.

There is no suggestion that anything illegal took place in paying off Mrs Bailey, but concerns over the procedure, authorisation and timing of the payment, have been raised by a number of councillors and members of the public.

Due to these issues, the town council commissioned Suffolk Association of Local Councils (SALC) in July of this year to carry out a review of what had happened and the report by cmd back to council on November 12, and was discussed as an agenda item at their monthly meeting. [See full story here].

Documents made public following an internal audit earlier this year show the payment for more than £64k was made into the Suffolk County Council pension fund on behalf of Mrs Bailey on May 10, eight days after the election. The payment was authorised by ex-councillor Sue Angland on the same day as final agreement between solicitors had been reached and sent to the council, which would not have allowed councillors to debate the findings.

Although no longer an elected councillor, Mrs Angland was still a bank signatory and an internal memo, dated May 10, again in the public domain, shows the locum clerk instructing the financial officer to make the payment.

It has subsequently been argued by council officers that the payment to Mrs Bailey was discussed as a confidential item meeting by the new council in June, 2019.

However, the agenda and the minutes for that meeting in June 2019 makes no mention of a confidential item to be discussed, nor was any vote to exclude members of the public and press made - the usual requisite to start a confidential session.

Despite this, SALC were led to believe the payment had been discussed and in a report commissioned by Hadleigh Town Council, it concluded; financial regulations had been breached made the following recommendations.

The report stated: 'The Council's financial regulations were not followed for this period, however from the information we have received the Council ensured that payments during this period were approved by the new Council at full Council meetings, some retrospectively and the remainder in advance of payment. Evidence has been seen that the invoices relevant to these payments were initialled by two councillors (new) and the locum clerk.'

SALC went on to recommend:

â—The new bank mandate should be available for completion and signature at the first available council meeting.

â—Invoices should be initialled by all parties to confirm agreement.

payments approved at the meeting is noted.

Frank Minns, Hadleigh's town mayor told Nub News he was unable to comment on staff matters.

Mrs Bailey, who is now a parish councillor in Great Moulton, Norfolk, and a mature student at University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, told Nub News that due to Non-Disclosure Agreement in place with the town council, she is not in a position to make any comments or statements regarding her employment there.