EXPOSED: North Somerset Conservative Councillor Ruth Jacobs Did Not Pay Almost £2,000 Council Tax For Months

 

Councillor Ruth Jacobs

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Somerset Independents puts residents first. We stand up for residents and we act on the issues that matter to them.

Residents support our investigations into councillors who persistently failed to pay their own council tax. To say again, we do not pursue private individuals. 

But councillors are not just private individuals. They are public representatives who receive public money in the form of an allowance. And they spend public money when they vote at council meetings or take other actions as councillors.

We said that we would expose councillors that we found to have failed to pay, during our investigations.

We named three councillors. The first of them that we are providing details of is Councillor Ruth Jacobs. 

Councillor Ruth Jacobs

Councillor Jacobs was named in the response to our Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to North Somerset Council. We quote directly from the Council's responses. In the first response from the Council, they said:

"Councillor Ruth Jacobs – Reminder issued 19.05.21, Summons Issued 18.06.21, Liability Order granted 09.07.2021. The amount has now been paid in full. The amount of arrears varied each month as payments were being made but payments were not as billed. We do not hold a reason for non- payment."

But the Council did not answer our FoI properly. Information was missing. So we asked them to review it. After a long delay, they came back with more information. And the Council Leader apologised to us for how they had handled our requests.

This time they gave us the large amounts of arrears - which they omitted in their initial response, despite our request asking for the information.

ONE THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-TWO POUNDS AND TWENTY-TWO PENCE IN ARREARS - almost TWO GRAND!

Cllr Jacobs even got a court summons and liability order granted.

"Councillor Ruth Jacobs

19 May 2021	Reminder Issued	£126.22
18 June 2021	Summons Issued	£1,922.22 (£1,827.22 Council Tax+ £95 Summons Costs)
09 July 2021	Liability Order Granted
Notes: The amount has now been paid in full, with the final payment being made on 21 January 2022.

We can confirm Cllr Jacobs was not present at the budget meeting of February 2022, attending only via Teams."

We have repeatedly offered Cllr Jacobs a right of reply. All we got in response from Cllr Jacobs was a mystifying reply:

"Hi,

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

I resent your implication

Yours

Councillor Ruth Jacobs"

What implication? We simply offered her a right of reply to the information we obtained. 

We went back to Cllr Jacobs and asked a series of questions - again, no reply has been received.

And on her "attendance" at the Budget Full Council - Cllr Jacobs did not declare that she had been in arrears on her council tax during the financial year. She was at the meeting "virtually". Why didn't she speak up? Was she embarrassed? Was she hoping to keep it quiet?

Councillor Jacobs won't be able to keep it quiet any more, because we are publishing it.

It is a question of honesty. It is a question of integrity. It is a question of the Nolan Principles of Public Life, which all councillors are bound by.

We suggest local residents submit a formal complaint into Councillor Jacobs.

And we have suggested to Cllr Jacobs that she should resign. Do you agree?

We have asked all North Somerset Conservative councillors for comment.

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