A PARISH council has been asked by external auditors to explain a £900 payment to a local charity.

Hemingbrough Parish Council has been asked to explain the payment to Hemingbrough United Charities, registered with the Charity Commission as being “for the general benefit of the poor”.

Greig Markham, a Hemingbrough resident, brought the payment to the attention of the auditors after studying the council’s accounts.

He said: “The income of the charity is £340 per year, which comes from the rent on the only asset, agricultural land rented by a parish councillor.

“Trustees of the charity decided to increase the spending to £1,200 per year and got the money from the parish council in 2009/10. The parish council are funding the charity from public funds. This is not a request for a donation. You have a group of trustees who are parish councillors asking for money then going back to the parish council to give themselves the money.”

Jan Strelczenie, chairman of the parish council, said: “The funds were a donation to the charity under section 137 of the Local Government Act, which allows parish councils to spend money where there is no facility under standing orders to do so. For example, if a Scout troop wanted money to fix their roof, the council could give it to them under Section 137. The charity used to go towards giving food to the poor. In this day and age I don’t think we’re into food parcels, so what the trustees have done is to spend the money on Christmas cards for the over-70s with £10 inside.

“All I can say is that Mr Markham had the opportunity while he was viewing the accounts last month to ask questions. He failed to do so, instead went to the external auditors and raised them as objections, which have to be investigated, and they have informed us that they will be charging us £250 per hour to do so.”