Councillor has unpaid council tax bill of £6,000
Plus: Employment Rights Bill, anti-fascists commemorated
This is the 29th edition of The Teesside Lead, and it represents something of a completion in one respect. I’ve finally had FOI responses from all five Tees Valley councils about their councillors owing council tax arrears, and the result - at the risk of sounding like AI-generated clickbait - is truly shocking.
Meanwhile, The Lead’s national title has launched a campaign to ensure low-paid workers don’t slip through the net with clumsy wording in the new Employment Rights Bill, and a ceremony to commemorate those from Teesside who fought fascists in the 1930s is due to take place this weekend.
I’ll continue to bring news and investigations for free to subscribers. If you’re unable to support financially, then the simplest thing you can do to help is to share The Teesside Lead with friends or on social media.
For those of you with a little bit of cash in your pocket (and it is only a little bit that you need), you can subscribe for a monthly payment of just £4.99 to support independent investigative journalism in Teesside. That’s roughly 63p per edition.
And on the subject of investigative journalism, here’s the latest in our ongoing investigation into councillors with unpaid council tax bills…
A councillor on Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council has an unpaid council tax bill of nearly £6,000, The Teesside Lead can reveal.
In the latest of my ongoing investigation into councillors’ tax arrears in the Tees Valley, this freedom of information (FOI) revelation shows a councillor has built up their arrears over at least a year, potentially multiple years.
The total amount of council tax arrears owed by one councillor is £5,900.86.
It’s by far the highest tax arrears owed by a councillor in the Tees Valley region. Previously I’ve reported two councillors on Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council who who £6,443.57 between them, who the council refuses to name. However, their arrears are dwarfed in comparison to the amount owed by the unnamed Stockton councillor.
The annual council tax rate for a Band H property - the most expensive rate - in Ingleby Barwick is £4,716.90 for 2024/25. It means the Stockton councillor who owes nearly £6,000 would owe over a year’s worth of council tax if they lived in one of the most expensive properties in the borough.
If they lived in a Band A property, the arrears of £5,900.86 would mean nearly four years of council tax has not been paid by the unnamed councillor.
Two other councillors owed sums of £47.66 and £723.77, however the council refuses to name any of them in contradiction of the legal precedent set by a 2016 High Court tribunal (and I’m just as sick of mentioning that case as you are of reading it!).
Stockton Council justified its refusal to comply with established case law, saying: “there are ongoing concerns for the safety of elected members, and it would be inappropriate at this time to disclose information that could jeopardise their personal safety.
“The potential for targeted harassment or threats against councillors is currently a significant concern, and disclosure could heighten those risks unnecessarily.”
Their position on councillor safety comes a week after controversial social media posts by Conservative MP Matt Vickers to criticise councillors who voted against supporting a new national inquiry into grooming gangs. His Stockton North counterpart, Labour’s Chris McDonald, spoke in the House of Commons about targeted harassment received by Stockton’s councillors after the post.
“We know too well that such words online can lead to real-world consequences. One councillor was specifically targeted through paid social media advertisements. People turned up at her home and terrorised her, with yobs braying at her door. Other councillors have been verbally assaulted,” he said.
Stockton Council initially extended the 20-day statutory deadline to respond to my FOI request, citing a need to consider the public interest test. When they eventually provided their response, it was later than the additional 20-day legal deadline they had to consider this.
They said the arrears identified “primarily relate to short-term delays in payment rather than any substantive issue of refusal to pay or may relate to specific financial hardship, rather than deliberate non-compliance.”
It’s unusual to receive such narrative detail in an FOI response, but it suggests the lower two amounts owed were due to late payments, while the near-£6,000 debt is because of financial issues faced by the councillor in question.
“It is also recognised that, since the date of your request,” they added, “some or all of these accounts may have changed.”
At the time of my FOI to Hartlepool Council, a councillor owed £176 which was paid after my questioning, but the council also refuses to name them.
Meanwhile, independent Darlington councillor Thom Robinson owes £1,763.10.
No Middlesbrough councillors were in council tax arrears at the time of my enquiries.
Councillor in arrears branded “disgrace”
The council tax arrears of Cllr Thom Robinson on Darlington Council were the subject of controversy at last week’s full council meeting.
Cllr Robinson attended the meeting - his first in over four months - and declared he was in arrears for council tax, before leaving while the agenda item was discussed.
Councils are currently preparing to vote on their budget proposals for the next financial year, and it’s an offense for councillors who are in arrears to vote on the budget.
Teesside stories you may have missed…
⚡ Aberdeen-headquartered energy services firm Three60 Energy is opening a Teesside office
👉🏻 43% of children in the Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency live in poverty
🚊 Ben Houchen expects trials of “trackless trams” to begin by the end of the year
🚓 Stockton Council is developing a new plan to fight crime and anti-social behaviour
🏠 Preston Park lodge could be replaced by a “partial replica” of itself
Join The Lead’s campaign for fairer sick pay
The Lead’s national title has launched a campaign to improve sick pay for workers in the UK.
Labour’s Employment Rights Bill is currently working its way through Parliament and hopes to provide the biggest overhaul of workers’ rights in a generation.
It could end zero hours contracts, allow people to take parental leave from the first day of their employment (something I would have benefited from in 2023), and to remove the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) - an obstacle which currently stops 1.3 million workers from receiving statutory sick pay (SSP).
The current LEL means a worker has to earn at least £123 a week to qualify for SSP, which, given the nature of lower paid work, disproportionately affects women and minorities.
As my colleague Zoë Grünewald puts it: “Cleaners, carers, and gig economy workers—those who kept the country running during the pandemic—are left without a safety net when they fall ill.”
While the government aims to remove the LEL completely, the wording of the bill would link SSP to a percentage of earnings, potentially leaving those around the current threshold much worse off.
The Trade Union Congress estimates roughly 1.3 million workers could see a cut to SSP under the current drafting of the Employment Rights Bill.
The TUC and The Centre for Progressive Change looked at stats from the ONS and DWP. The most recent data showed were 72,596 people on statutory sick pay in the Tees Valley. That represents close to 27% of people in employment.
The Lead has launched a petition to put pressure on parliamentarians to amend the wording of the bill, which you can sign below…
You can read more about the campaign from Zoë here…
Teesside anti-fascists to be commemorated this weekend
A ceremony commemorating Teessiders who fought fascists in the 1930s will be held in Middlesbrough this weekend.
The event at Middlesbrough Town Hall on Sunday (9 February) will begin at 11am, and will commemorate the 90th anniversary of a protest against Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, described as the largest ever of its kind in the region.
It will also remember the 32 volunteers who joined the International Brigade to fight in Spain against Franco’s fascists, four of whom lost their lives in the Battle of Jarama in 1936.
Event organiser Tony Fox, from Billingham, said: “With last summer’s far-right riots in Middlesbrough and other towns still in our minds, we and relatives of Teesside people who fought fascism during the 1930s will remember their sacrifices. People and events of the 1930s inspire us today to continue opposing fascism wherever it emerges.”
Other speakers will include poet Bob Beagrie, who was a Teesside University lecturer. He will read from his recently-published book, Romanceros - Poems inspired by the Spanish Civil War. One poem, called A Particular Shade of Red, is inspired by George Bright.
David Walmsley, from Middlesbrough, has researched the 1930s era on Teesside. He said: “During the period, there were at least 20 demonstrations around the region against the British Union of Fascists. The first significant protest was on Stockton High Street in 1933, when George Short organised 3,000 demonstrators who outnumbered 30 BUF 'Blackshirts' and prevented a BUF officer from speaking.
“That was dubbed 'the Battle of Stockton'. It set the pattern of further outdoor protests over four years. Protests in Stockton, Hartlepool, Darlington, Sunderland and Middlesbrough helped stop the BUF from growing to any significant size in the north-east.
“In February 1935, the BUF tried to hold an indoor meeting at Middlesbrough Town Hall with its leader, Oswald Mosley However, a large protest was held outside. Newspapers reported 'thousands' of protesters outnumbering a small group of BUF supporters inside.
“The anti-BUF protest was led by George Short, Wilf Jobling and Sam Langley, who were linked to the National Unemployed Workers Movement and other groups. They spoke to the police and agreed to move on to another part of Middlesbrough, marching along Albert Road. It was an important protest of that era.”
Attendees are asked to meet at the MIMA gallery car park shortly before 11am on Sunday.
If you have any stories or tip-offs let me know. I’m not accountable to shareholders or advertisers, just you, the reader.
Get in touch at teesside@thelead.uk or via Bluesky.
Thanks as always for reading
Leigh