UPDATED (11/5/21): TWO Mendip Councillors Getting Councillor Allowance But Did Not Pay Council Tax

Green Councillor Francis Hayden
Did Not Pay Council Tax
from April 2020 to Feb 2021!

UDPATE (11/5/21): Sedgemoor District Council have replied to our enquiries about their councillors. More here.

UPDATE (7/5/21): Because we have discovered that TWO Mendip district councillors have not paid their council tax but still claimed their councillor allowance from the council, we are widening our enquiries.

More to come from Somerset Independents on councillors who vote on things that affect thousands of residents, but who have not paid their own council tax.

And Mendip District Council trying to cover up the identity of the other councillor who had not paid. The Green Councillor Francis Hayden is the councillor who Somerset Independents discovered had not paid from April 2020 to February 2021 while still remaining as a councillor and voting on matters affecting Somerset residents' lives.

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UPDATE (30/4/21): We have asked for a formal review of Mendip Council's response to our Freedom of Information request (emphasis added and council officer's name removed, as he is a junior officer):

"Dear <council officer's name>,

Thank you for your Reply.

I request a formal review into the Reply, because Mendip District Council has not provided all of the information that I have requested.

It is illuminating that Councillor Hayden was in arrears since April 2020.

It is most illuminating that another councillor was in arrears.

And it is also very interesting that the new S151 Officer appears to have had to educate the Monitoring Officer about the law regarding non-payment of council tax by elected members. 

I note your Refusal Notice, but I do not agree with its contents. For example, I have asked for details of all councillors in arrears. But you have refused to provide all of the names.

This is public information and it is in the public interest that it is released.

If I do not receive the information that I have requested after the review, I will consider contacting the Information Commissioner's Office, relying on previous Tribunal decisions including the one mentioned in <Mendip council tax officer>'s email that is contained within your Reply.

Regards,

Andrew Pope"

 

Now we know that TWO Mendip councillors did not pay their council tax... and Mendip District Council do not want to say who the second councillor is.

Somerset Independents previously revealed that Green Councillor Francis Hayden did not pay his council tax, and was banned from voting on council tax at Mendip District Council.

The law prevented him from doing so. Which is only right.

We gave him a right of reply, and asked Councillor Hayden a set of questions which he failed to properly answer.

We suggested that he resign. Cllr Hayden has not resigned. Cllr Hayden has not been removed from office. He remains a Green councillor. Hayden continues to claim the councillor allowance that is public money - hundreds of pounds per month.

Then we published the news that a Liberal Democrat councillor had resigned. No reasons were given by Councillor Caroline McKinnell, who as we had revealed had previously been absent from her councillor duties for more than six months. 

But Cllr McKinnell claimed payment via her councillor allowance which again is public money. And Mendip's councillors even voted in a public meeting to allow her to go beyond six months.

Between them, Councillor Hayden and Councillor McKinnell would have been paid thousands of pounds in public money, in their councillor allowances.

And as we have reported, council tax continues to rise. Now... it gets worse...

More information has been obtained by Somerset Independents. It shows that:

• At least TWO Mendip councillors were in arrears, as reported by a Council officer to the Section 151 Officer (Chief Financial Officer) Richard Bates.
• Green Councillor Francis Hayden had not paid his council tax since April 2020.
• The identity of the second councillor was deliberately omitted by Mendip District Council from the information that we asked for. We explicitly asked for information on all councillors in arrears on their council tax.
• The S151 Officer appears to have had to educate the Monitoring Officer David Clark about the law regarding non-payment of council tax by elected members, and that they could not vote on setting the council tax.
  

Responding, Somerset Independents Officer and council governance expert Denise Wyatt says:

Denise Wyatt

"It might be OK if Councillor Hayden had forgotten to pay for a couple of months, in an administrative error. Except that he is a councillor, who is supposed to be a position of responsibility.

Now we've found out that as of February 2021, Cllr Hayden had not paid since April 2020. 

Has the Council prosecuted him? The public need to know.

Has the Council given him preferential treatment to other residents who have not paid? The public need to know.

How can he justify remaining a councillor, and claiming councillor allowance, when he hasn't paid? Shouldn't it be deducted from his councillor allowance?

Cllr Hayden can't justify his behaviour, and he should resign. If he doesn't resign, the Green Party should remove their support from him and expel him as a member.

That the Green Party have not done this, shows that they endorse his behaviour.

And now we find out that there is ANOTHER councillor who has not paid.

Worse, Mendip District Council have tried to cover up who it is.

And if the Monitoring Officer was not aware that arrears means a bar on a councillor from voting on council tax, have other councillors been in arrears before and still voted on the council tax for Mendip's approximately 115,000 residents? 

Because if the Monitoring Officer didn't know in 2021, did he know in previous years about the law?

Somerset Independents is now challenging Mendip's cover up and wants more answers to our questions."

Standing Up For Somerset Residents