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Reporting local life since 1854
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Saturday, June 4, 2011
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PULIS HAS CHRISTIAN FAITH
£37m
Picture: Steve Bould
alex.campbell@thesentinel.co.uk
A CASH-STRAPPED council is trying to claw back more than £20 million in unpaid council tax owed by residents across Stoke-on-Trent. It is the same amount Stoke-onTrent City Council will be forced to shed from its budget for 2012/13, resulting in more redundancies and service cuts. Figures obtained by The Sentinel show councils across the region, each facing multi-million pound budget cuts, are chasing more than £37 million in residential council tax arrears. The total does not include millions of pounds in arrears that have been written off by local authorities after officers deemed their outstanding bills “unrecoverable”. Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s arrears total climbed from £4.3 million in 2009/10 to £5.3 million in 2010/11. The authority has written off £4.8 million in unpaid tax over the last five years, including £4.3 million in 2009/10. But it is still chasing a total of £20.4 million from unpaid bills which have built up since 1993. Cheshire East Council is owed £13.1 million having written off £634,000. Staffordshire Moorlands District Council is chasing £1 million in arrears and has written off £721,000 in five years. Newcastle Borough Council is owed £3.2 million, but said it
has not written off any outstanding balances. Campaigners fighting to protect services threatened by budget cuts today spoke of their frustration at the untapped millions. Anthony Withers, of South Bank, Meir, is attempting to launch a High Court challenge against the city council’s 30 per cent cuts to the children’s centre budget. The 34-year-old said: “If the council was able to get back the money it is owed it would solve a lot of the problems. It would certainly mean the children’s centres would not have to suffer these cuts.” Councillor Dave Conway, leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s opposition City Independent group, pictured, said: “It’s a disgraceful amount of money when you think about how much the council is having to cut. If we had this money the council wouldn’t have had to close down the pools and
What do you think? Email us at letters@thesentinel.co.uk
Plans to axe beds on hold PATIENTS are celebrating after plans to scrap mental health beds were put on hold. Combined Healthcare had wanted to axe 34 beds in its four resource centres, which offer short-term psychiatric care to people so they can avoid being admitted to Harplands Hospital. But 24 beds in three of the centres will now be kept open. See Page 6
Mum to fight for post offices MUM-OF-FOUR Kym Ledgar has vowed to take on the Government to try and save the nation’s post offices. Kym, aged 54, who runs Fenton Post Office, will now juggle the business with representing 7,500 of her colleagues, after being elected president of the National Federation of SubPostmasters. See Page 17
NOSTALGIA
BOAT LOAD OF FESTIVAL FUN SEE PAGE 6
Inside: Garden festival the ‘best thing Stoke-on-Trent has ever done’
Stoke on Trent College enrolling NOW on a wide range of new adult programmes starting in September. For more information see your copy of our new part-time prospectus (being distributed to homes this week) or contact us: • Tel:
01782 208208 • Email info@stokecoll.ac.uk • www.stokecollege.ac.uk
Cauldon Campus: Stoke Road, Shelton, Stoke on Trent, ST4 2DG Burslem Campus: Moorland Road, Burslem, Stoke on Trent, ST6 1JJ
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wouldn’t have had to move the old people out of their care homes. “We need to be doing everything we can to get the money back.” Stoke-on-Trent City Council said it is working to recoup the arrears and only writes off debts in extreme cases, including bankruptcies and deaths. It said it uses credit-checking facilities like Experian to trace debtors. Asked about the current £20 million arrears, Councillor Sarah Hill, the city council’s cabinet member for finance, said: “Since it was introduced in 1993/94 the city council has raised over £1.2 billion in council tax. “The figure written off in 2009/10 of around £4 million represents only 0.3 per cent of the total recoverable debt dating back to 1993. “This £4 million is known as unrecoverable debt and covers everything from bankruptcies to deceased debtors, where the council has no realistic chance of getting that money back. “Writing off a large part of this debt in one go does happen occasionally, as we are focused on reclaiming the arrears that we know we can collect.” A Cheshire East Council spokesman, said: “Cheshire East Council has an excellent past record in the collection of council tax arrears at 97.25 per cent for the year 2010/11. “We send out thousands of reminder letters to residents who fail to pay their council tax.”
Stitch up for drunk camper DANGEROUS driver Scott Heath needed 26 stitches to his head after he fell out of a security vehicle. Guards at a campsite had detained the 27-year-old from Knypersley after he enraged fellow holidaymakers by speeding around their caravans. But Heath, who was over the drink-drive limit, fell from the van, hitting his head. See Page 3
That’s the staggering amount tax dodgers owe your councils
BY ALEX CAMPBELL
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