A second Kirklees councillor has revealed she owes council tax ... and has challenged others to also ‘come clean.’
Newsome Green Party councillor Karen Allison says her council tax payment was delayed a month because her bank account was frozen.
This follows Clr David Ridgway revealing why he was in arrears which leaves the identity of 12 of the 14 councillors who were in arrears – including five who had received court summonses – still a mystery.
Clr Allison said she had been sent a reminder letter for council tax for a single month’s payment of £77.77
She explained: “I pay my council tax every month and on time so under normal circumstances there would not be an issue but in January my bank account was frozen following the loss of my bank cards. This resulted in a single months council tax payment of £77.77 not been transferred as usual to Kirklees. I received the reminder letter and the issue was sorted within a few days. My council tax payments are now fully up to date.
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I have provided my explanation for my reminder letter and I think it only right that other councillors on the list should reveal themselves and provide an explanation, particularly those who still owe the council several hundreds of pounds and have court summons against them.”
The Examiner revealed last week a shocking level of non-payment of council tax by councillors.
Nick Lavigueur speaks about the Council Tax revelations
In the past two years a total of 14 have received reminder letters warning them they haven’t paid their bills.
More worryingly, the council has been forced to issue court summonses to five of the 14 after they ignored the warnings.
The Examiner has been told two of the 14 who fell into arrears are Labour councillors, but their identities are currently unknown.
Ex- Lib Dem councillor David Ridgway, who lost his Colne Valley seat in the recent local elections, has already revealed he received a threatening letter from Kirklees Council in March saying he owed £121.
He says his bank statement proves he paid the bill and Kirklees has admitted it has “lost the money.”
And he too has urged the other non-payers to come forward.
He said if the other transgressions turned out to not be mistakes then it was “outrageous,” adding “a person who puts themselves up for election and then doesn’t pay their dues – it’s heinous, it’s outrageous!
“It’s a matter of public embarrassment.”
Lib Dem leader Clr Nicola Turner said she had been told none of the issues were with her party’s councillors and said the names of the offenders ought to be published.
“I do think we need this to be transparent,” she said. “All 69 of us are getting tarred with the same brush.”
