This article is from page 4 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 4 JPG
A CLARE elected representative and his wife who registered and paid the controversial household charge before the first deadline, were this week issued with not one but two reminder letters to pay the charge and a late payment fine.
Kilrush town councillor Tom Prendeville (FF) said that he has a receipt to show that he paid the € 100 charge.
Yet despite his compliance with the law he received a letter in the last week stating he was now over due the payment.
His wife also received a similar letter sent to the same address, demanding the “outstanding” charge be paid.
An angered Cllr Prendeville said he was not going to ring the lo-call number highlighted in the letter to advise the Local Government Man- agement Agency (LGMA) of its mistake.
“I paid € 100 for household charge. I paid for services and I’m being denied services because others have not paid,” he said.
Among those who received reminder letters on the household charge were a dead man and a dead woman from West Clare, as well as numerous people that had already paid.
Among the 33,000 letters issued by Clare County Council on behalf of the LGMA a number of them went to people who are deceased.
Councillor Prendeville said one West Clare woman was particularly upset as a reminder letter was sent to her late husband, using a name that he was not known by on any documentation except the register of electors.
The councillor raised concerns that the register was being used as a method of identifying people, a method he described as “illegal”.