A KIRKLEES councillor who voted to increase council tax is in arrears on their own council tax bill.
It’s been revealed that one unnamed councillor, who gets a basic allowance of £12,566, owed £523.
It has been alleged the councillor voted at the Budget Meeting to increase the council tax bill for the borough’s residents by 1.7%.
Kirklees Council is taking the money back via an Attachment of Earnings Order from the member’s allowance.
The Examiner asked all the political parties if it was one of their members – the Conservatives , Liberal Democrats and the Green and Valley Independents all said it wasn’t. Labour did not answer the question. Clr Tony Brice, an Independent, did not attend the meeting to vote.
Clr Robert Light, Tory leader, called for the name of the councillor to be made public to lift suspicion from the rest of the council members and in the interests of transparency.
He said: “Whoever the councillor was, I feel that it is essential that their leader reveals their name.
“By not doing so, it casts suspicion on all the other members of council and the political groups to which they are affiliated.
“I can confirm that senior officers, who know the identity of the member, have confirmed that it is not any of the 18 members of the Conservative Group.”
He said the leader of the political party should have been made aware of the problem before the Budget debate yet “they allowed their member to take part and vote on a proposal to increase the council tax”, Clr Light added.
Clr Mehboob Khan , leader of the Labour party, said the councillor has a right to privacy.
He said: “As with any member of the public, council officers worked with the councillor to come up with a way which allowed them to meet their responsibilities.
“Ordinary people are struggling under the squeeze on family incomes. The councillor is entitled to their privacy and the council tax arrears have been cleared.
“When voting in the council meeting, under the Local Government Act, it is the responsibility of the individual councillor to declare that they are unable to vote.”
Clr Andrew Cooper, who heads the Green and Valley Independents, said: “According to national guidance for councillors they are allowed to vote on budgets even if they are in arrears on their bills.
“My own view is that councillors who owe council tax to the council should declare this at the beginning of a meeting so any votes they have on financial matters on the council can be judged accordingly by the general public.
“This would, in my view, be consistent with the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s current wording on the principle of integrity.”
And Clr Kath Pinnock, leader off the Liberal Democrats, said she thought the councillor involved should not have voted and made discrete efforts to leave.
She said: “It’s not a Lib Dem councillor, the reason I am sure is because before a vote I will ask if they are okay to take part.
“But I also know that councillors are people, they are human beings too and sometimes they have overwhelming difficulties for whatever reason, it could be bereavement or financial crisis, in the same way everyone else does.
“They shouldn’t have voted in the budget, it could have been avoided but I’m not going to go after blood – it’s unpleasant to put somebody in that situation for such a cheap point.”
