Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Northern tax collection branded ‘heavy handed’

Glynis Sinclair.
Glynis Sinclair.

Complaints have come in about legal threats of penalties for late payment of council tax in the north.

Council chiefs insisted yesterday they are simply following the rules.

Inverness councillor Glynis Sinclair has been contacted by a number of constituents who have received letters from sheriff officers in recent days.

She acknowledged that bills must be paid, but believes the practice of issuing such letters is heavy-handed and can be “worrying” for old and vulnerable people.

“The only justification I have had from headquarters is that there is pressure on to get the tax in quicker,” councillor Sinclair said.

“There has been a change to the way in which the council collects the tax, in that if a person does not pay the full monthly payment on the allotted day, the debt goes straight to sheriff officers for collection.

“There have been lots of people caught out by missing a single day, but a suggestion that direct debit is a better arrangement may not be acceptable to some people.”

David McGrath, a pensioner and community councillor in Smithton and Culloden is among those who have received letters from sheriff officers. In his case, he was warned of a 10% surcharge for underpaying his first instalment by a few pounds.

He said: “The SNP Government are campaigning to lessen the impact of Tory welfare reforms on the less well off in society and yet this SNP led council allows its officials to punish people with a 10% surcharge which, with a little tolerance or flexibility, could be avoided.”

A council spokeswoman said: “We continue to follow legislation in the recovery of overdue council tax.

“Council tax instalments are required to be paid as stated on the demand notice. Instalments for annual bills issued in February are due to be paid on or before April 1 and the first of each subsequent month.

“Failure to make payment as requested will result in the issue of a combined reminder/final notice which requires to be paid within 21 days. Failure to do so will result in the council seeking a summary warrant to recover the full amount.”

So far, 11,308 combined reminder/final notices for non-payment have been issued compared with 10,606 for the corresponding period last year.