Conservative Councillor Defies Rules on Council Tax

Is there a future political career for Borough Councillor Omer Kokou-Tchri who was elected to serve College ward in May 2015?

Front page of the local Guardian this week (available online) publicises how he owed over £1500 council tax when elected, has now received a Court judgement but still disputes that he should pay up.

Worse still, he has offered to give some of his councillor allowance toward the debt but is a member of the council's Financial Policy Panel and Strategy & Resources Committee. He has not attended many meetings and has not been permitted to vote because of the dispute.

It is not an election offence to stand for office whilst owing council tax. Many of us have to deal with hardship but surely isn't it rather deceitful not to have made the situation clear to those from whom he sought votes and support? Isn't it rather naive to expect to have concealed the true situation given that he is a public servant? To say that he will campaign against the current rules and regulations surely puts Councillor Kokou-Tchri in an untenable position. There cannot be one rule for him and one rule for others and he surely cannot represent the electorate on this basis.

The Councillor lives in Noble Park which is actually miles from the ward he represents. College ward already has NO representative on the Planning Committee : the current 3 Conservative councillors chose to allow a Woodcote ward councillor to act for them. Now we have discovered they have a councillor who is not permitted to vote on financial matters and surely is not competent to do so in the future. One wonders what other skeletons are in the cupboard.

Councillor Kokou-Tchri should resign. His party colleague Chris Grayling MP surely wants to protect both his own reputation and that of the other three Conservative borough councillors. Chris Grayling MP should insist that the councillor tenders his resignation..