Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
From £125 to £102: has Haringey quietly reduced their Court Summons charge?
I NOTE that Reverend Paul Nicolson and Taxpayer's Against Poverty have this morning issued a press release, being an update on the charging of late and non-payers of council tax, for council tax summons and liability orders costs.
The public is still waiting for the Auditor's report about what would be a fair figure. Waiting, because this is not in the public domain but there has doubtless been discussion behind closed doors. Waiting, since the High Court case earlier this year (previous post).
It seems that there are discussions going on in private which should be taking place in public.
Some points to note:
- The cost of a recent summons was reduced by 18%: from £125 to £102
- It is unclear how, why or when this cost was reduced
- We are now five months on from the High Court decision
- The Council's Auditor, Grant Thornton, has yet to publish a report
If £102 is indeed the new price – to some of the poorest in the Borough – then it still looks high to me. The High Court judge had pointed out that the Magistrates were the only thing standing in the way of Haringey Council charging … whatever it wanted.
Should Haringey Council be able, in effect, to charge its "customers" whatever the market will bear?
The £23 cut also begs the question raised by Rev. Nicolson: if this is the new price, does it imply that there has been overcharging over the last five years?
TAP suggested that the overcharging amounts to more than £1,000,000. I would add, from a Labour-run Council and falling on amongst the poorest. Perhaps Majority Group Councillors have been active about this behind the scenes: however, I'm not aware of it.
Has the Council managed to persuade their Auditor – whom they employ – that this is a fair and reasonable reflection of Haringey Council's own extra, marginal or incremental costs?
Has some quiet, private decision been made behind closed doors?
Where lies the public interest in all this?
Whatever decision is concluded or charging structure is agreed, it is likely to be looked at with interest by local authorities throughout the country.
CDC
Haringey Councillor
Liberal Democrat Party
Tags for Forum Posts: High Court, TAP, Taxpayers against poverty, Tottenham Magistrates, human, indefensible, moral vacuum, £125
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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I understand that the Applicant has lost the case he brought. Can it really be true that the Court thought there was no public interest aspect?
In the short term there'll be wrangling over costs but in the medium and long term, I'm sure that the issues have not been buried as the other side will surely have hoped.
I wouldn't mind betting that this will be in Court again.
I wasn't in the Court room today when Judgement was given, but I understand that a Press Association representative was present.
The judgement should be posted up online in due course.
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Permalink Reply by Over2you on
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Thank you for that. I've been wondering when verdict would be announced.
Perhaps when the scales of justice have been recalibrated, which it seems they are in dire need of, the outcome will be different.
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H&H Broadway article: Reverend loses appeal against Haringey council tax court charges
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Lord Justice Hamblen, one of the two High Court judges hearing the case leaves there no doubt from his statement in that article that his knowledge of the issues were so lacking that a fair hearing was impossible.
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THIS Wednesday at the Royal Courts of Justice, Rev Nicolson brings a case against the Council's Auditor (Grant Thornton). There are important issues at stake:
- The unlawfulness of the amalgamated costs of Haringey’s council tax summons and liability orders in 2013 and from 2008/9 to July 2015.
- Then the unfairness, if not bias, of the procedures used by Grant Thornton when responding to my objection and
- The calculations underpinning Haringey’s reductions and separation of the costs, in July 2015, from £125 to £102 for a summons and to £115 for a liability order. We think they should be done again strictly abiding by the regulations and after Haringey’s policy of maximising the costs has been revoked by the council.
[from the TAP site]
There'll be wide interest in the outcome.
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Another media notice:
Media Notice; High Court bamboozled by Haringey Council and Grant T...
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Haringey Council's Twitter account promotes only the top half of the front page of yesterday's Ham & High Broadway. Here're the two halves that make up the full picture:
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