A Pendle councillor is under fire for owing £3,835 in council tax and missing many meetings, raising questions about his role.
The council says Ormerod owes £3,835. Karen Spencer discussed rules for councillors, stating that councillors owing tax cannot vote on tax matters if they are two months behind.
Ormerod attended two committee meetings and one full council meeting after December 2023. Missing meetings for six months leads to removal, unless council approval is granted otherwise.
Whipp questions whether the Conservative Party knew about the tax debt before Ormerod’s election in 2023, calling the situation a scandal.
Ormerod owed £3,835 last March and received £3,131 in allowances that year. Whipp contends that Ormerod has barely attended meetings, doing the minimum to stay a councillor and missing many he should have attended.
Whipp believes Colne suffers as a result. He stated that a councillor not paying or attending hurts Colne and that Ormerod should resign, allowing someone willing to take over his role.
Whipp thinks Conservatives must reflect on their choice of a candidate with tax debt and believes they should have acted sooner. He stated that residents deserve answers about the situation, and believes it is unacceptable and must end.
Whipp stated the tax owed each year: £1,153 in 2022, £547 in 2023, and £2,135 in 2024. Ormerod attended two meetings since December 2023.
The committee meetings were in Colne on May 9 and November 7, 2024. His only full council meeting was May 18, 2023, shortly after Ormerod became a councillor in May 2023.
The ward has a new election soon because another councillor quit recently after a disagreement on taxi safety. Ormerod is still a councillor now. Reporters contacted him and the Conservative group seeking a statement on this matter.