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External auditors have again refused to sign off Spelthorne Borough Council’s accounts, warning its finances will not be fully resolved before the authority is merged into a new council.
Grant Thornton told councillors the Surrey authority’s financial position remains unclear, meaning key issues will pass to the incoming West Surrey Council when Spelthorne is abolished.
The audit firm said it could not obtain enough evidence to confirm the accuracy of the council’s 2024/25 accounts and will issue another “disclaimer of opinion”.
It is the sixth consecutive year the council has failed to secure a clean audit, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
Grant Thornton told an Audit Committee meeting on 22 January that “time is not necessarily on the [council’s] side”, adding that unresolved problems would have to be picked up by the new authority.
Because the accounts have not been signed off, the council does not know how much usable reserves it holds or the true value of its assets.
Auditors said this is not a bankruptcy notice, as the council has not run out of money.
Residents’ bins will still be collected and parks will be maintained.
Spelthorne is due to become part of West Surrey Council, which will also have to deal with five other council accounts.
However, auditors said Spelthorne’s finance team has improved over the past year.
They said records were better organised, responses to questions were quicker and draft accounts were in better shape than before, which meant it could could check more figures than last year.
But they added there were still dozens of technical mistakes and missing disclosures which should have been identified internally before the accounts were submitted.