EXPOSED: The Names Of North Somerset Councillors Who Did Not Pay Their Council Tax For Months or Years

 

UPDATE (18/7/22)

Independent Parliamentary Candidate for Weston-super-Mare, Ben Hart told us:

"Aren't councillors who are in council tax arrears barred from voting on all things budget? Quite right ,if so."

Yes, that is indeed the case, as remarked by Judge Kate Markus in the Bolton Council vs Haslam case that we have used many times to put pressure on Somerset councils and councillors.

However, there are councils that have tried to argue against it, despite the very clear ruling. We have published the most important part of the ruling on the page at this link here.

We hope that active citizens in other parts of England will follow our lead.

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Somerset Independents puts residents first. Residents are outraged when we tell them that their elected councillors have not paid their own council tax for months or in some cases, years.

They often get more annoyed when we tell them that councillors at those same councils have increased the council tax that everybody is expected to pay.

Sometimes residents say that these councillors should resign.

In February 2022, we began an investigation into councillors at North Somerset Council. We said that we would publish their names but we have been delayed by (you can click the links on the bullet points):

• North Somerset Council bungling our Freedom of Information requests
  
• the Council Leader Don Davies resigning suddenly and telling us it was not due to council tax arrears when we asked him
  
• North Somerset Council's new Leader, Councillor Steve Bridger, apologising to us for how the FoIs were handled
  
• waiting for the councillors - Jacobs, Goddard and Shopland - to respond to our offers of a Right of Reply and chasing - with one only available by post and not email nor phone (yes, really - this is 2022 and not 1922 we reminded him!)
  
• local media outlets and reporters at Reach (SomersetLive) and Archant (Weston Mercury/North Somerset Times) giving us the runaround when we asked them to report on our investigation. They said they were interested but filed no story despite us giving them our valuable work and waiting patiently for weeks. We came to the conclusion that both SomersetLive and WM/NS Times had not prioritised our investigation sufficiently to warrant it being published, despite the clear public interest.
  
• delays in responses from our further enquiries to North Somerset Council's Solicitor Nicholas Brain
  

Due to those delays, our investigation began in February and has only just completed.

So Which Councillors Did Not Pay Up?

In the initial response, North Somerset Council only gave us two names. But when we challenged them, they eventually gave us three names and the full details that we had original asked for, months before. In alphabetical order, they are:

Councillor Caroline Goddard (Portishead East)

Councillor Caroline Goddard
(Portishead East)

 

Cllr Goddard represents Portishead East. She was elected as a Portishead Independents councillor. Now she is shown on the Council as "non-aligned". She was also disqualified from Portishead Town Council for non-attendance at council meetings. We have repeatedly offered the right of reply to Councillor Goddard. She failed to respond to any such offers. 

We also offered the right of reply to Paul Gardner, the Leader of the Portishead Independents political party. He declined to make a comment.

We have now published more details of Cllr Goddard's arrears at the link here.

 
Councillor Ruth Jacobs (Wick St. Lawrence and St George's)
 

Councillor Ruth Jacobs
(Wick St. Lawrence and St. George's)

Councillor Jacobs is a Conservative councillor. She represents the Wick St. Lawrence and St. George's ward. We contacted her on multiple occasions by email (there was no phone number available) to offer her the right of reply, receiving just one terse response. Cllr Jacobs said:

"Hi,

Full council tax will be paid on Monday 13th June2022.

I resent your implication

Yours

Councillor Ruth Jacobs"

We were not sure what she meant and asked her to respond to our questions in full. She did not. We chased her and also asked her Conservative Group Leader Councillor Nigel Ashton to make sure Cllr Jacobs responded. Cllr Ashton did respond, but not with anything approaching an apology or action. Still we await a response to our questions from Cllr Jacobs.

We have now published more details of Cllr Jacobs' arrears at the link here.

Councillor David Shopland (Clevedon East)

Councillor David Shopland
(Clevedon East)

Councillor David Shopland represents Clevedon East ward. He is an Independent councillor and is a member of the Independent Group on the Council, which is led by Council Leader Steve Bridger. Cllr Shopland was only contactable by post. He has not given out any phone number or email address. Despite this, we still offered him a right of reply. No response has been received.

In 2013, Councillor Shopland was, along with his wife Ann, reported to Police for failing to register their interests in a timely way. Under the Localism Act 2011, this is a criminal offence. 

We have evidence that Cllr Shopland also failed to declare his interest at the 2022 Budget Full Council, as he attended the meeting and failed to declare his council tax arrears at the relevant item. The minutes show this and it was confirmed by Council officers when we checked.

We have now published further details of Cllr Shopland's arrears at the link here.

What do you think of councillors who do not pay their own council tax?

Do you think that they should resign?

Will you stand against them in the 2023 elections for North Somerset Council, if they stand as candidates?

Who Are Somerset Independents?

We are Somerset's only dedicated campaigning group political party that covers the whole of Somerset. 

Join Somerset's own campaign group and political party to celebrate Somerset's past, protect Somerset's present and prepare Somerset for the future.

We can be contacted at the link here and via Twitter @SomerInds, via Facebook at the Somerset Independents page and via email at somerinds [at] gmail.com.