Just 1 of 5 Somerset Councils Confirms All Councillors Paid Their Council Tax - the rest are in shame...

Standing Up For Residents

Last year, we published our investigation into all Somerset district and county councillors and exposed those councillors that were outed by their own councils.

Somerset Independents should not have had to do this investigation, as it should be normal that ALL councillors pay their council tax. This is what residents expect and councillors make decisions that impact hundreds of thousands of people in Somerset. It is also the law that councillors cannot vote on the council budget if they are in arrears.

Us volunteers at Somerset Independents should also not have to investigate, as surely the local media should be investigating. But none of the below do much investigating of Somerset's councils.

• BBC Bristol a.k.a. BBC West
  
• SomersetLive/Reach, including the "Local Democracy Reporter" Daniel Mumby who is attached to Reach at SomersetLive but gets funded by the BBC
• (Somerset) County Gazette
  

However as reported on this website, and in national and local investigative organs Private Eye and The Leveller, Somerset Independents discovered that councillors were persistently in arrears:

• in the east of Somerset at Mendip District Council (MDC) and South Somerset District Council (SSDC), and 
• in the west of Somerset at Somerset West and Taunton (SWT) AND on Somerset County Council (SCC) too.

The County Council did not want to know if any of its councillors were in arrears. When we enquired, they palmed off responsibility for checking onto the districts and expected councillors to be honest to declare any arrears when at Somerset County Council.

We've discovered and reported that County Councillors are NOT NECESSARILY honest, as shown in our reports on former Tory Councillor Neil Bloomfield, who is also a SSDC councillor for Martock.

Council Tax Recalcitrant
Councillor Neil Bloomfield

So what about Sedgemoor's councillors?

In the financial year ending in 2021, our investigations showed that over the two years, only one of the five district and county councils in Somerset had no councillors in arrears TWO YEARS IN A ROW.

That was Sedgemoor District Council.

We asked them the same questions as last year, again this year.

And again, they've told us that no councillors on Sedgemoor District Council were in arrears.

We won't be congratulating them, as this is how things should be.

Andrew Pope, Leader of Somerset Independents and leader of the investigation, says:

Andrew Pope

 

"Other Somerset councils and other councils nearby have been asked the same questions that we asked them last year.

And shockingly, we have discovered more councillors who have been persistently in arrears, and more councils who are prepared to try to cover up and protect their councillors instead of answering our questions.

We will be reporting more very soon, particularly on those councillors who might think it is OK for them to stand again in the elections in May."