Bolton councillors told to cough up after not paying their tax on time

Councillors have been caught not paying their council tax on time – but the town hall has refused to name them.

A total of 14 unpaid council tax reminders were sent to Bolton councillors in the last four years, a freedom of information request has revealed.

At least three councillors were late on payments in the financial year of 2017/18.

One councillor was sent three reminders, with the final unpaid bill totalling £421.

In the financial year beginning 2015, four councillors were sent unpaid council tax reminders and one – former UKIP leader Paul Richardson – was summoned to court.

Bolton Council withheld the names of councillors who were sent reminders on the grounds of data protection.

Some Bolton councillors have been sent unpaid tax reminders (PA)

This comes after the local authority refused to reveal the names of two other councillors — Labour’s Ismail Ibrahim and Conservative Mudasir Dean — summonsed to court for late payment of council tax.

But a judge ordered the council to reveal the names after a three-year legal battle with the press.

The tribunal ruling only related to releasing the names of councillors summonsed to court, however. No judgement was made about those receiving reminder letters.

Councillors have had to be reminded to cough up (Copyright Unknown)

The council said that the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, Data Protection Act 2018, and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) still apply in this case.

A spokesman said: “The Information Commissioner has said that there may well be mitigating circumstances which explain why certain councillors have not paid their council tax on time. For example, the late or non-payment of council tax was due to factors outside of their control.

“We believe releasing the requested information into the public domain would be unlawful. Individuals have a clear and strong expectation that their personal data will be held in confidence and not disclosed to the public under the act.”

Neighbouring Blackburn with Darwen Council did name councillors who did not pay on time.

The Local Government Finance Act bars a councillor from voting on the council’s budget and determining council tax if they have an outstanding council tax debt of over two months.