FIRST PUBLISHED BY THIS IS MONEY
SHE PAID HER TAXES THROUGHOUT HER WORKING LIFE, RECEIVED NO BENEFITS AND HAS NEVER BEEN IN TROUBLE WITH THE LAW.
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| 7 days - sentence for refusing to pay her horrible Council Tax bill |
But today 73-year-old Sylvia Hardy was jailed for refusing to pay her full Council Tax bill. The former social worker from Exeter is angry that her bill has soared way above the rate of inflation and is holding back £53.71 a year. She appeared before magistrates this morning and was handed a seven day sentence for refusing to pay.
Miss Hardy's defiant stance will heap shame on the government which has failed to tackle the problem of spiralling local government expenditure.
Pensioners across the country are growing increasingly angry as Council Tax bills rise faster than increases in their pensions.
One, 71-year-old clergyman Alfred Ridley, has already been sent to a Category A prison for 28 days after refusing to pay £63 of his tax. Miss Hardy visited him last week and is now more determined than ever to make a stand. Yesterday, she confessed that she is 'terrified' of going to prison but said she was determined to go through with her protest as it 'is the only way to get our voices heard'. 'I have thought for a long time that this government is completely out of touch. 'What we are campaigning about is just one issue but there are many more. I hope the politicians take notice of what is happening. Ordinary people like us are so angry.
'We are worried for our future and our ability to cope. 'No one takes any notice of us when we write to our MPs and lobby them, that's why I am taking this drastic action. What else can I do?' Miss Hardy's time in prison will cost taxpayers around £700. She decided to withhold part of her Council Tax after seeing the bill for her £130,000 flat in Exeter rise six times higher than the annual increase in her pension.
Her annual Council Tax bill is £708.26 - which has risen 38% in the past four years, compared with a 6.8% rise in her pension. This year she has paid 1.7% more than last year's bill, in line with inflation, but has held back the rest of the increase. At a previous hearing at Exeter magistrates' court she was given 56 days to pay up or face custody. That time is now up. Miss Hardy joked that she had been to jail once before, to sing The Yeomen of the Guard at Exeter prison with the local operatic society.
She said she was apprehensive about spending a week at Eastwood Park prison in Gloucestershire. 'My doctor says my blood pressure is quite high and has told me to inform the prison authorities. I am determined to do this and I just hope my nerve holds out when I'm stood in the dock. 'The two things I will miss most will be making my own food and a comfortable bed. I have lots of food allergies so I probably won't be able to eat much. And I have a back problem which will probably cause me some pain on the prison bed.
I will do this for the people of England so they will fight for their human rights.
'Mr Ridley told me when I visited him last week that the beds in prison are very hard so he has to get up very early in the morning.'
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I support Council Tax Rebates in assisting home owners and tenants in getting a rebate on their over-paid Council Tax.