MIDDLEWICH Town Council is demanding proof it is liable for a £67,000 council tax debt for two almshouses after Cheshire East threatened legal action to recover the money.
As reported previously, unpaid council tax demands for the almshouses dating back to 2017 were recently discovered in the town council offices.
Almshouses are low cost community housing which is held in trust for local people in housing need.
At Monday (November 7) night’s meeting of the town council, Middlewich councillors were adamant they were not responsible for the almshouses, which are off Lewin Street, close to the junction with Sutton Lane.
Middlewich mayor Colin Coules said: “It’s in dispute. Cheshire East have said that they’re going to take legal action next year to pursue that debt.
"We’re contesting that. We’re saying there’s no way, or not in the constitutions that we’ve seen, that actually identifies us as the administrators or having any responsibility to the Alcocks Charity [which ran the almshouses]. The only obligation that we had was to appoint trustees.”
At present the charity has no trustees and doesn’t appear to have had for a number of years.
Middlewich Town Council clerk Nicola Antoney said Cheshire East had claimed if the town council doesn’t appoint trustees ‘we automatically, by default, become the trustees’.
She said she had re-read the constitution and various documents numerous times and could not find that stated anywhere.
She added Cheshire East had not provided any proof this was the case either.
The town council was also told by the clerk that, because of the current state, there is no way a trustee would take on the trusteeship because they would automatically inherit that £67,000 debt.
Cllr Coules insisted Cheshire East needs to provide the documentation to prove Middlewich Town Council is liable for the debt.
He added: “We’re still fighting. We’ve got another meeting in two weeks’ time.”
Cllr Mike Hunter said he had been on the town council since the 1990s – apart from a few gaps – and ‘never once has this council appointed trustees in my time being on the council’.
“I certainly believe, if they can’t produce a document that says exactly what you’ve said, that we are not liable,” he said.
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