This article is from page 19 of the 2012-11-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 19 JPG
NO FURTHER warning letter concerning payment of the Household Charge will be issued by Clare County Council until a complete and accurate list of those who have not paid is made available to the local authority.
That is following a motion put forward by Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council. Standing orders were suspended last night to allow councillors to fully debate the recent issuing of 33,000 letter to people in Clare.
It has also emerged that County Manager Tom Coughlan contacted the Department of the Environment and asked that letters be issued by the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) and not by Clare County Council. According to Mr Coughlan, the Department of the Environment said that Clare County Council was required to issue the letters because it was the agency who the fee was payable to – despite the fact the the LGMA was tasked with collecting the payment.
Mr Coughlan also said that it would be the responsibilty of Clare Country Council and not the LGMA to take any legal action against home owners who do not pay the housing charge.
More than 33,000 letters were issues by Clare County Council to homeowners in Clare, despite the fact that less than 16,000 people still owe for the property charge. A large number of people in Clare received multiple letters, including many household who received letter for deceased relatives.
“This is totally counter productive. All this has done is convince the 30 per cent of people who have not paid that they should not pay. Because nobody has a clue who has paid and who hasn’t,” said Cllr Richard Nagle (FF).
“I think at this point we should issue a letter of apology to those who received letters for relative who were deceased.”
Mr Coughlan said he was unhappy in the way the issue was handled. “I am unhappy as well. I am unhappy about the reputational damage which has been done to Clare County Council about this. I am unhappy about the time and resources that were spent on this and I am very unhappy that people got letter from this council which caused them upset.”