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Regional daily names tax summons councillor after three year fight

A regional daily has named a councillor summoned to court for non-payment of council tax after a three-and-a-half year battle.

As HTFP reported last week, Bolton News reporter Dale Haslam had fought to get Bolton Council to reveal the representative’s identity after submitting an initial Freedom of Information request asking for details of councillors who had received reminders for non-payment of council tax since May 2011.

One of the two summoned over the issue subsequently revealed himself, but the council refused to give up the other’s name in a decision later upheld by the Information Commissioner and a First Tier Tribunal.

After an Upper Tribunal upheld Dale’s appeal last week, the News today unmasked Labour’s Ismail Ibrahim as the anonymous councillor on its front page, pictured below.

Bolton tax

Said Dale: “We’re delighted with the outcome of this long-running case, which underlines how essential Freedom of Information powers are to newsgathering in the public interest.

“Our coverage has been warmly welcomed by our readers and, on their behalf, we will continue to scrutinise the conduct of our public servants as every good local newspaper should.”

Ian Savage, editor in chief of The Bolton News, added: “The editorial team – and Dale in particular – has worked extremely hard and tenaciously to finally achieve this excellent and important result.

“It shows just how vital local newspapers still are in their communities and hopefully sends a message out that we will continue to hold people in power to account.”

 

Cllr Ibrahim has been sacked as chairman of the council’s corporate and external issues scrutiny committee, which is responsible for overseeing issues related to council spending.

Council leader Cliff Morris yesterday walked the short distance between the town hall and the offices of the News to hand over a statement on behalf of Cllr Ibrahim, who could not visit the newspaper in person due to a “family commitment”.

The statement reads: “I would like to sincerely apologise to the people of Bolton for not disclosing my name earlier.

“I want to stress that this was late payment of my council tax, not non-payment, and my account is now paid in full. At the time, I was undergoing some personal issues and was under considerable stress.”

11 comments

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  • March 22, 2016 at 12:35 pm
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    Gesture politics to sack him now. Surely Council Leader would have known all along. Time for a follow up to ask the question of why he was not shipped out earlier, I think.

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  • March 22, 2016 at 3:32 pm
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    Honestly?
    I think there’s an alternative narrative here … a grossly over-egged attempt to ‘shame’ someone. Why is the regional press so obsessed with shaming people? It’s like they genuinely love it and I’ve been in enough new conferences to realise it’s true. Where is the possibility explored that this was a slip-up, soon rectified? I don’t know if it was but I don’t know if it wasn’t. There is far too much tenuous justification for stories which really do not advance public interest at all.
    PS the headline online: REVEALED: Labour councillor finally admits not paying council tax after three year battle to name him

    Tell me that’s not deliberately misleading. Suggests he didn’t pay at all.

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  • March 22, 2016 at 3:48 pm
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    When councils stop mercilessly hounding those far less well remunerated than their own members for late or non-payment of council tax, this sort of thing will cease to be a story. Not before.

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  • March 22, 2016 at 4:20 pm
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    Really Sue? You can’t see the news angle to this story? Do you still go into those news conferences?

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  • March 22, 2016 at 4:59 pm
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    Roger, let me tell you what I don’t like … the deliberately misleading headline, the seeming delight in ‘shaming’ someone and the utter failure to stress that this was a case of late payment, not non-payment. There is a news angle but it’s all about emphasis.

    Steerpike, I have never been ‘mercilessly’ hounded for late payment of anything and nor I suspect have you.

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  • March 22, 2016 at 6:59 pm
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    I’d rather have the Bolton News team covering my local council than Sue any day, .

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  • March 23, 2016 at 8:52 am
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    Sue, I strongly disagree with that, shamed is the appropriate word. This man is a high ranking councilor on a board. When you accept a role like that then you have to lead by example, that’s part of the price you pay, otherwise they have no moral authority to expect others to tow the line.

    Also, this man had three years to own up. The other councilor involved – Mudasir Dean – did so and it’s all pretty much forgotten about now. This chap chose to hide behind regulations instead, and even when exposed couldn’t be bothered to give the BN an interview and put across his side of the story, instead leaving it to his boss to take a statement to the office – it’s like getting your mum to phone in sick for you, unbecoming of anyone with pretensions to being viewed as a civil leader.

    The local press exists to keep an eye on democracy and uncover things which those in power don’t want to be uncovered, and they’ve done that brilliantly here, hats off to the BN and Dale Haslam the dogged reporter.

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  • March 23, 2016 at 8:53 am
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    Two typos there – ‘toe the line’ and ‘civic leader’.

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  • March 23, 2016 at 10:17 pm
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    Mark Smith: I don’t think they’re typos – just pig ignorance.

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  • March 24, 2016 at 8:50 am
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    Digger, what can I say, the road to Damascus is paved with good intentions.

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