At times like these it may be easy to overlook bills, though the reason they are being ignored may also be that we do not have the money to pay them. And one bill that cropped up for payment this week was the council tax bill, with the first payment of the year due on Wednesday April 8.
And for some this may have been easily dealt with by a standing order from their bank account, or payment online – but for others it may mean using a council tax payment card (which I have) which you can use at your nearest Post Office or Pay Point.
However I am supposed to stay at home and not mix with people because I am ancient and unhealthy, and at risk because I have lung disease, otherwise known as COPD, and I have had serious asthma from birth.
I can pay by cheque though and put it in the post, which I have done, but communication between Rother District Council (the billing and collecting authority) and their post handling service in Nottingham is either inefficient or incompetent as Rother have claimed in the past that payments have not been made.
That was why I have a Council Tax Payment Card and use it at the Post Office in Rye – but, of course, I am not allowed to do that now.
And, before you ask, I do not have an online bank account, and do have to arrange standing orders by personally visiting Nationwide. Doing financial stuff online is a potential disaster area for me because I suffer from dyspraxia – which I call the “clumsiness” disease, and which means I probably have to read this story three times to get the words right.
For example, in the previous paragraph, I thought “three” but my fingers typed “through” and dyspraxia is a developmental disorder which causes difficulty in activities requiring co-ordination. But for years I just thought I was clumsy – which I am.
“Harry Potter” actor Daniel Radcliffe, musician Florence Welch, photographer David Bailey and genius Albert Einstein all suffer(ed) from it. So my weapon of choice in the army cadet force was, and still is a machine gun – as I could never hit the bullseye. I gave up learning to drive after hundreds of lessons. I failed shorthand, my typing is grim – but I was a journalist for many years.
And, before you say “why not ring them up ?”, I am becoming increasingly deaf.
But, back to Rother. Their bills always annoy me because it includes a charge labelled “Rye Special Expenses”. This represents Rother’s cost of looking after its land in Rye, like The Salts, taken over by Rother when local government was re-organised. And it includes assets like the Landgate which Rother neglected so badly that it has gone out with a begging bowl in recent years in order to raise funds to look after it.
This charge of “Rye Special Expenses” is nothing to do with Rye Town Council though the bill makes it look like it is and the Town Council’s costs are one of the smallest items in the bill. The biggest increase (twice as much as anyone else’s in percentage terms – 5%) is for the police, though the largest in cash terms is, obviously, the county council.
County council costs (including social care which is billed separately) adds up to 71.2% of each pound paid. Rother District Council is next with 10.3p in the pound if you add together their general costs with the specific cost of looking after their property in Rye, followed by the police at 9.5p in the pound.
Then comes the Fire Brigade with 4.6p in the pound and Rye Town Council is last, and least, costing 4.4p in every pound.
As many people have lost their jobs, or seen substantial drops in their income, in the past month it will be interesting to see whether Rother applies any common sense in these circumstances if bills are paid late – or indeed can not be paid.
After re-reading every piece of small print on the paperwork I was sent I can find no reference as to what you do if you can not pay, but you could email customerservices@rother.gov.uk or call 01424 787000.
Image Credits: Rye News Library .