Disgraced West Somerset Councillor Kelly Durdan Refuses To Answer Why She Didn't Pay Council Tax

 

Councillor Kelly Durdan

Councillor Kelly Durdan is an elected councillor for Creech St. Michael, near Taunton in Somerset, as shown on the Somerset West and Taunton Council website. 

Somerset Independents has been campaigning to expose councillors who have not paid their council tax, because councillors are holders of power over residents and hold elected public office. This makes them accountable to the public and they are not ordinary residents while they hold that public office. This isn't only our view. It is the accepted view of the law.

Councillors in Somerset had the power to even put your council tax up during a Global Pandemic. We asked them not to do it, with Somerset Independents speaking at all four district councils and the county council, plus the Police and Crime Panel. But councillors did put up your council tax anyway. This was not right. It was not justified.

So if councillors put up OUR council tax, councillors should be paying council tax themselves, right? WRONG. Our investigations have found councillors who have not paid. Not just for one or two months, but over YEARS!

Councillor Kelly Durdan is one of these. Somerset Independents are now revealing the full extent of her record of non-payment of council tax, going back before Covid-19.  Here is an extract from the response to our Freedom of Information request to Somerset West and Taunton Council (our emblem added):

Extract from Somerset Independents
Freedom of Information Request
To Somerset West and Taunton Council

As you can see:

1. reminders were sent to Councillor Durdan for the previous year in January 2020 and February 2020, before the first lockdown
2. more reminders were sent to Councillor Durdan in August 2020, September 2020, October 2020 and March 2021
3. A COURT SUMMONS was issued in April 2021
4. A LIABILITY ORDER was granted in May 2021

We asked Cllr Durdan a set of further questions including why she was in arrears, but she refused to answer our emails. She also refused to answer whether she was now fully up-to-date.

We have offered Councillor Durdan the right of reply on several occasions. We didn't have to. We had no reason to believe that the Council's response was not accurate. Out of courtesy, we offered her the right of reply.

We have offered it to her again. But the public deserve to know about their councillors.

The latest was a phone call yesterday, when Cllr Durdan falsely claimed that this was the first time that we had contacted her. 

We had previously contacted her by email on 4th June 2021. And on 6th June 2021. We also copied her into other correspondence with her Group Leader Councillor Gwilym Wren, in relation to her fellow offender Councillor Paul Bolton. Cllr Durdan never responded.

So in a final effort to get an answer we phoned Cllr Durdan. 

Instead of apologising to the public for her arrears, and trying to give an explanation on her arrears that pre-dated the Global Pandemic, Cllr Durdan got irate and hung up. She told us that we should contact her Group Leader Councillor Gwilym Wren. We had already tried that! He didn't reply either.

Somerset Independents Officer Denise Wyatt called Cllr Durdan:

Denise Wyatt

Denise reacted to Cllr Durdan hanging up on her and failing to answer:

"It is bad enough that this councillor failed to pay her council tax over so many months and over years.

She had to be sent reminders by her own Council, that she is a councillor on, in January 2020 and many times afterwards.

So Cllr Durdan was in arrears BEFORE the Global Pandemic.

I asked her for an explanation. She didn't give one. Cllr Durdan tried to claim that this was all due to the Pandemic. It wasn't. She was already in arrears going back to 2019.

She should resign."

Somerset Independents has asked residents of the Somerset West and Taunton (SWT) Council area what they think about councillors in their area who don't pay their council tax.

Taunton resident Shawn said:

"Councillors not paying their council tax is disgusting behaviour by Somerset West and Taunton councillors. I can't actually believe this even happens, and the Council Leadership watches it happen! What has gone wrong with the moral authority of our councillors?

As a local resident, I think any councillor in arrears should be suspended and allowances stopped until they have fully paid up. This seems perfectly reasonable to me and I think 99% of residents would agree with me."

In reference to Councillor Paul Bolton and Councillor Kelly Durdan, those of SWT Council who have both received a court summons and liability order, Shawn says:

"I think they should resign, they’ve lost all moral authority to represent their constituents who they expect to pay their council tax. I really can't believe this goes on. I also wonder what the SWT Council leadership are doing about this, anything or simply turning a blind eye?"

We agree with this resident and we have suggested to both Councillor Bolton and Councillor Durdan that they should resign.

We have also suggested to Councillor Wren that Cllr Bolton and Cllr Durdan be removed from his Group. We have also made this point to other "independent" members of this Group of Councillors. We have had no response.

Somerset Independent has discovered that many, if not all, of the councillors in the SWT Council Group of "Independents" were formerly Conservative Party members and/or had stood for Council as Tory candidates.

So our investigations have not only shown these councillors to be serial offenders in not paying their council tax. They are also fake independents. And they are giving true independent councillors a bad name.

Bolton and Durdan must go. Local residents demand it, who told us:

Resident A: "That is disgraceful. They should not need to resign - they should be automatically excluded. There are so many people who struggle to manage on very low incomes but still pay their council tax etc. Why should these people get away with it. Not fit to hold office."

Resident B: "They should resign or be expelled. They are not fit to hold a position of Councillor."

Resident C: "They’re all only looking out for themselves just like the MPs! We’re all right Jack, don’t worry about anyone else!"

We agree. And we are taking action against these councillors, PCCs and MPs too. Councillors should have criminal records checks before they are elected. And they should be checked regularly thereafter.

Somerset Independents will continue its work with residents in investigating and exposing dodgy councillors, MPs or PCCs in Somerset, whether in the national political parties or bringing the name of "independent" councillors into disrepute.

 

Standing Up For Residents