Hypocrisy

“Hypocrisy (noun) : The pretence of possessing virtues, beliefs, or qualities that one does not really have. ” Longman Dictionary 2015

Do you believe there is one rule for SDC Cllrs and one rule for yourselves? Do you think SDC are bias? Well Shepwayvox has evidence to demonstrate that may well be the case.

On the 18/02/15 at Full Council, Cllr Claire Jeffrey (Lab) asked Cllr Susan Carey (Tory) a question regarding Council Tax. This was the question:

“What is the lowest amount of individual household Council Tax owed to Shepway District Council, excluding the cost of the summons, that has resulted in a summons being issued in the current financial year 2015/16 and what was the lowest amount of individual household Council Tax owed to the Council that resulted in a summons being issued in 2014/15?”

Cllr Susan Carey’s reply was:

“Four summonses were issued for £60 in 2014/15 and three in 2015/16. Of these three two were paid before the court hearing and the third is due to go to court on 26 February.”

Now in 2013/14 a Journalist did an FOI request to all Councils in England and about Cllrs and Council Tax, We wrote to the Journalist and asked him for the results for Shepway. The information he provided is as follows:

“Three councillors got reminders. All three reminders were for over a £1000. Two paid up at the reminder stage stage. One didn’t and was summonsed to court and had to pay £1,505.69. None were barred from voting.”

Now that appears to us to demonstrate a very clear level of hypocrisy and bias by SDC and how they treat Cllrs and the rest of us. Oh, and to make it very clear, the three Cllrs were all Tory. Now this amounts to different treatment in our eyes but what do you think?

Anyway if you are struggling with paying your Council Tax, for whatever reason, there is a provision that you can ask for it to be written off:

You can legitimately ask SDC for discretionary relief under Section 13A (1) (c) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. By doing this they must consider  if it is viable and remember, the all important word is “DISCRETIONARY” it is not compulsory.

So there you have it, clear evidence at least in our eyes that there is one rule for Cllrs and one rule for us. Hypocrisy in action? What do you think?

Shepwayvox