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Essex: Bailiffs calling to collect tax debts
9:00am Thursday 8th January 2009
Comments (6)THOUSANDS of Essex residents are being called to court or visited by bailiffs for failing to pay their council tax.
Colchester Council summonsed 3,240 households to court last year for council tax arrears, new figures reveal.
And bailiffs visited 2,842 Colchester homes to collect council tax debts, and 16 residents were petitioned for bankruptcy between April and December last year.
It places the borough below the national average of 7,201 household summons, 3,356 bailiff visits and 14 bankruptcy cases.
Tendring was also below the national average with 5,388 people receiving court summons for council tax arrears in 2006 to 2007.
Last year Tendring Council ordered 2,726 bailiff visits and 22 residents were pursued for bankruptcy.
Critics say the statistics show councils are taking a heavy-handed approach to chase unpaid council tax as one in five bankruptcy petitions is now lodged by a local authority.
Colchester Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB) said a quarter of all its clients with debt problems were experiencing problems paying their council tax.
Read more in the Gazette
Your Say YourGazette
Gideon Smythe, Wivenhoe says...
1:35pm Thu 8 Jan 09
So I'll at least have the law on my side when I turn up there with a crowbar and a swag sack.
crazyone, clacton says...
5:13pm Thu 8 Jan 09
Boris, Colchester says...
12:08am Fri 9 Jan 09
I wish we did have a communist government, we would then be happier and more free than we are to-day.
Crazyone is right, Mrs Thatcher was evil. Remember the poll tax? Far more unfair.
What is the problem with bailiffs? If people owe money then they must pay, or go bankrupt. It is one of the iron laws of capitalism. Simple really.
Sidney Harbour-Bridge, Colchester says...
12:12pm Fri 9 Jan 09
Boris wrote:Boris,
Guido, what is this "communist Labour government" that you keep banging on about? The present government is as right wing as Thatcher. On some issues it is even to the right of the BNP. I wish we did have a communist government, we would then be happier and more free than we are to-day. Crazyone is right, Mrs Thatcher was evil. Remember the poll tax? Far more unfair. What is the problem with bailiffs? If people owe money then they must pay, or go bankrupt. It is one of the iron laws of capitalism. Simple really.
You're either for capitalism or against it, You're not supposed to critisise sdomething and in the next breath appear to support it.
(Unless you are a politician of course)
Boris, Colchester says...
7:58pm Fri 9 Jan 09
I am not a politician, but I am keenly interested in politics, a subject much too serious to be left to the scurvy politicians.
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guyfawkes999, England says...
10:03am Thu 8 Jan 09
See link below from The Times Bailiffs get power to use force on debtors - dated 20 december 2008 for further details.
http://www.timesonli
ne.co.uk/tol/news/po
litics/article537566
8.ece
It is time to get Communist Labour out of government.