CALLS TO FREE JAILED COUNCIL TAX REBEL

FIRST PUBLISHED BY: THIS IS MONEY

THE SON OF THE RETIRED VICAR JAILED FOR NOT PAYING HIS COUNCIL TAX DEMANDED HIS FATHER BE RELEASED LAST NIGHT AFTER IT EMERGED THAT HIS ARREARS WILL BE WRITTEN OFF.

Alfred Ridley, 71, who suffers from a heart condition, was sentenced to 28 days in one of Britain's toughest prisons for refusing to pay a £64 annual increase in his Council Tax bill.

His local authority yesterday announced it will waive his debt butonly after he has served his time alongside murders, terrorists and gangsters in the Category A Woodhill Prison. Last night, Joel Ridley, 30, said: 'He should be freed because, in the minds of many, the matter is now closed.

'My father is in a category A prison and he is 71 years old. The council has wiped out his debt and he still finds himself in prison. I am angry about the whole affair.' The National Pensioners Convention described South Northamptonshire Council's decision as 'vindictive'. Spokesman Neil Duncan-Jordan added: 'The council could have expressed a view to magistrates beforehand. Perhaps they are feeling the backlash of public opinion and don't want to be remembered as the council that put pensioners in prison, particularly retired vicars.' A Help the Aged spokesman added: 'The decision by South Northamptonshire Council is welcome but smacks of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

'Older people across the country continue to struggle with unreasonable increases in Council Tax despite the services they rely on day-to-day facing swingeing cuts. 'It is little wonder that so many poorer pensioners feel the need to protest.' Mr Ridley - who lives with his wife Una in a rented home in Towcester, Northamptonshire, on an income of £530 a month - became the first Council Tax protester to be jailed after he refused to pay an 8.5% rise in his bill. Instead he paid the equivalent of a 2.5% increase and withheld £64, eventually running up arrears, including court costs, of £691.

Magistrates sentenced him on Wednesday after he continued to withhold payment despite being given a suspended sentence in July. The jail term will cost taxpayers £3,000. Last night Mrs Ridley said she was delighted that the council had wiped out the debt. 'The council rang me and said they were prepared to write off the debt but in return Alfred's punishment will be 28 days in prison.

'We both feel that is fair. I know some people will say that now the debt has been cleared Alfred should be freed, but the price - or the punishment - he has to pay is to serve his time in prison. Mr Ridley has spoken to his family in a brief phone call from the Milton Keynes prison, where Soham killer Ian Huntley attempted suicide in 2003. Son Joel said his father told him the prison was 'grim', that he was sharing a cell with a prisoner 'a little bit older' and would 'just have to see things through'.

Mrs Ridley, 72, added: 'He is level-headed and is bearing up. He does not regret anything. He is keeping calm and steady to pass this thing through. 'But of course I am concerned. There is a gap next to me in bed and there is this guy who I talk to quite a bit and I miss him very much.' Mrs Ridley said she thinks her husband, who has been taking medication for his heart condition in jail, will be treated as a remand prisoner during his time behind bars, and will be able to wear his own clothes, rather than a prison uniform.

An inmate released from Woodhill yesterday said he saw Mr Ridley looking 'worried' while waiting to hand over his personal belongings. 'He was looking depressed, he was looking shaken up. He was sitting down with his head looking at the floor,' said the 20-year-old, who called himself Brown. 'We could not believe a vicar was coming in. My advice to him would be to keep himself to himself.'

The decision to jail Mr Ridley, who did his National Service with the Marines ( A War Hero), provoked fury among MPs and charities for the elderly. It threatens a repeat of widespread Council Tax protests two years ago. South Northamptonshire Council said it took no satisfaction in the outcome of the case but had a duty to collect taxes. 'The reason Mr Ridley is in jail was not because of the money. It was because he failed to comply with a court order. It was the magistrates that sent him to jail,' said a spokesman. 

'comments from the local council' lets blame everybody else?

READ WHAT: ERIC PICKLES ‘SECRETARY OF STATE’ SAYS ABOUT OVER-CHARGED COUNCIL TAX. 

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