EXPOSED: NOT ONCE BUT TWICE - We Reveal Green Party Mendip Councillor Francis Hayden Broke the Law and Was In Council Tax Arrears TWO YEARS IN A ROW and MONTHS Before Covid

 

Cranmore, Doulting, Nunney
Green Party Councillor Francis Hayden

UPDATE (6/5/22): Francis Hayden did not stand for the New Somerset Council. Mendip District Council will be scrapped in one year's time. Francis Hayden will not be a district councillor or unitary authority councillor.

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One Year in Arrears - but there's more...

During our investigation into Somerset district and county councillors and their arrears on council tax, Somerset Independents revealed that Green Party Mendip District Council (MDC) Councillor Francis Hayden was in arrears for many months during one financial year, 2020-21. 

We also showed that Cllr Hayden voted on items relating to Mendip council's budget, despite being disbarred (banned by the law) from doing so due to his arrears.

We also showed that Hayden failed to declare that he was in arrears at the appropriate time during the Council meeting that decided Mendip's budget.

By the time that he had mentioned it, it was too late. Hayden was required to declare his arrears under "Declarations of Interest" at the beginning of the meeting, and NOT after already voting on budget agenda items.

Without our investigations, Mendip District Council would have carried on, regardless.

We have confirmed again, in further Freedom of Information responses from MDC, that MDC were not following due governance and this includes council tax procedures. 

As with several other of our campaigns, Somerset Independents has had to challenge, and educate, one of Somerset's councils in how to govern properly. We are just volunteers, but they get paid to look after public money.

Not Just One Year and Months of Arrears... But Two Years in Arrears!

We have also now discovered, from further enquiries we've made of Mendip District Council, and information that the Council inadvertently coughed up, that Hayden was ALSO in arrears in a previous financial year too! 

This was the 2019-2020 Financial Year, which was BEFORE the Coronavirus Pandemic. 

Why is this relevant? It is particularly relevant because Councillor Hayden has claimed in public more than once, in trying to defend the indefensible, that his arrears were due to the Pandemic.

Councillor Hayden was in arrears BEFORE the Pandemic.

And DURING the Pandemic too! So his claims are untrue.

We have quotes of what Cllr Hayden told the public in trying to deflect attention away from his misdeeds and defend the indefensible. We have the evidence.

For example, Somerset Independents raised Cllr Hayden's persistent arrears on one of the Frome Facebook groups - "Frome Local". 

When challenged by a former Conservative Mendip District Councillor for Frome College Ward, Mike Rideout, with the following. Here is the exchange:

Cllr Hayden wrote:

Green Party Cllr Francis Hayden

"Obviously it's not ideal to hold back on council tax but the good thing is we saved the business (Keren's Comfort Kitchen) and now we can get on with paying our bills in full."

So instead of paying his council tax, Cllr Hayden put the business first. This is despite receiving a councillor's allowance from the public purse, as Mr Rideout correctly points out.

When we discovered the extent of his arrears on council tax, we challenged Councillor Hayden and asked him a set of questions. We suggested that he should resign.

But Councillor Hayden refused to resign. He refused to properly answer our questions, even though we extended the courtesy of a right of reply.

Worse, he gloated about his non-payment to the public, bringing Mendip District Council into further disrepute. 

Councillor Hayden thought it would be a good idea to brag to members of the public about his non-payment and that he and his wife had prioritised other spending, including on her business, before paying his council tax.

We have the evidence. 

We have the evidence from Mendip District Council and other sources. 

This is despite the fact that MDC tried to re-invent what happened. We even had to record the meetings ourselves, because Mendip DELETED the recording and also claimed that the Minutes of the meeting were accurate - which they were not.

We showed MDC that Councillor Hayden voted on council budget items at the Mendip Budget Full Council meeting, despite the law preventing him from doing so.

Councillor Hayden also failed to declare his arrears, which is another offence.

And today, we now have a copy of the email sent to all Mendip councillors by the Monitoring Officer, David Clark, laying out the gravity of failing to do the above.

As the email states, these are criminal offences.

So we've asked Mendip District Council to take the matter to Avon and Somerset Police.

We had already asked them to do that when our Leader Andrew Pope lodged a formal complaint into Councillor Hayden.

But MDC didn't take it to the Police, despite admitting that things had gone awry.

Let's see what MDC do now.

 

Meanwhile, Somerset Independents will continue to investigate Somerset's councillors over their council tax arrears - and the lies that they tell in trying to defend the indefensible.