A document showing proposals outlining the financial model, plans to landscape and utilise Hadleigh's new cemetery extension, has been questioned by councillors and residents.

Aspects within the report prepared and presented by the town council's projects officer Alicja Barnes to the Cemetery Working Group on Tuesday, were criticised and costings labelled 'wildly wrong'.

A number of points in the report were challenged, including the financial modelling, proposed cost of certain burials and how the loan would be repaid.

Miss Barnes accepted the figures were not accurate and were based on guesswork and forecasts rather than a finalised budget.

Nub News listened in with Ms Barnes, eight members of the public and seven councillors for the working group meeting, which was held publicly on Zoom as part of the town council's commitment to openness and transparency.

Cllr Rolf Beggerow defended Ms Barnes and said she had done a 'fair' job on the report but agreed the figures did not stand up to scrutiny. He added that he planned to sit down with the officer and use his experience in accountancy to put together a more accurate spreadsheet outlining the various costs and financial forecasts.

Roger Young questioned the validity of the financial modelling and figures within the report and said: "I tried to replicate the spread sheet to work out the algorithm or formulae that had been used but found a large number of significant errors."

Miss Barnes: "I hold my hands up to say I did it. It was very rough, it is not a forecast or budget, it is a draft model. There will be errors and there will be changes. It will be redone as a proper document eventually."

Cllr Beggerow asked Mr Young to send him details of his finding and added: "Going forward I would like to establish a new cost centre for the new cemetery so we keep our income and cost streams quite separate going forward. We can try and use a budget for the existing operations nd we can monitor much more carefully the transition from the old to the new."

Mr Young responded by saying: "That is music to my ears because we are confusing a totally new business enterprise with an established business, that is why these figures are so wildly wrong."

Mr Young also questioned what brief Miss Barnes was given but neither she nor working group chairman Gavin Talbot were able to satisfy his request for a succinct summary.

Angela Gregg asked why the Cemetery Working Group, which had not previously met since August 2019, have not had a subsequent meeting to be able to give Miss Barnes a clear steer of what was required. Cllr Beggerow suggested that it was due to having no staff, and it was only until the former town manager Andy McMillan joined and he initiated the project and employed Miss Barnes as a project officer.

Andrew Knock questioned where the figures for the acreage in the new extension, now being stated as .4 of an acre, had come from without a survey being done.

He also questioned the figures being quoted in the report which stated there are 240 spaces left in the existing cemetery, which would last six years. At the game time to reports started on average 24 people a year die and he argued that equated to 10 years of existing use left.

Cllr Knock added: "We should be sitting down and working out how much space we have left in the old cemetery before we start spending money on a new cemetery.

"We are going to put the people of Hadleigh further into debt before we use up what have already got as I have a lot of concerns about this."

Miss Barnes agree she would check the figures, in particular how many burial plots and already been reserved and paid for.

Group chairman Cllr Gavin Talbot had technical issues, so Cllr Beggerow took charge of the meeting and suggested people put their questions forward and answered in time for the next working group meeting.

Huw Roberts aired concerns about the financial modelling and the figures used by the previous council administration that insisted it only had two years of burial spaces left, but project officer's council documents are now saying six years.

"An explanation should be given to the public on why that was given and an independent assessment should made," said Mr Roberts.

Cllr Beggerow accepted there were question marks over those assertions but it was important to put that in the past and look forward.

"There is nothing we can do about the past, all we do do is make the best of what we have got and the starting point is this presentation that Alicja has done fair job on pulling in," Cllr Beggerow said.

Mr Roberts also questioned the forecast figures and if all the costs were included in the figures.

Miss Barnes admitted: "The forecast will definitely be wrong. Hadleigh's population is growing. More estates are being built and more in the pipeline, but it is a guess at this stage. More detailed modelling with more accuracy will come into play."

Mr Roberts also expressed concerns about the £690,000 loan repayment, which would equate to £31,000 in interest to be paid next year, with further payments to follow.

Member of the public, Jan Byrne, pointed out the council was losing money by not making more of 'green burials' now. Mis Barnes also argued with Cllr Knock about the validity of Hadleigh offering 'natural burial sites' at £1,000, which she claimed is feasible even though the cemetery was not a dedicated 'green burial site' as other competitor sites are.

Meanwhile, Cllr Gordon McLeod told the group he had secured 210 trees, free of charge from the Woodland Trust, which would be planted by volunteers on the outside areas of the new cemetery that would provide screening and add to the natural feel.

Member on the public can listen in to tonight's Hadleigh Town Council meeting here: