Dear Editor,
Brent Council has been pursuing me for seven years for payment of a series of invoices which it knows perfectly well were issued in error. This year I have received eleven - yes, you read that right, eleven! - demands for payment of a debt of £93.80. The two reminders which arrived in the post yesterday threaten me with "legal proceedings ...... without further notice". I want to emphasise that I do not owe Brent Council any money, and they know that I don't.
The background to this is that in 2015 I decided to give up my tenancy of an allotment at Kinch Grove. I believe the plot was re-let the following year, but I continued to receive invoices for the rent which - perhaps foolishly - I ignored. In 2020, having received a cumulative bill for several hundred pounds, I spoke to a helpful officer in Debt Recovery, and then to the Allotment Service who confirmed that every invoice since 2015 had been issued in error. I hoped that would be the end of the matter.
This year I returned from holiday at the beginning of February to find four demands for payment of a new invoice issued in 2021. I spoke to the same - very helpful - officer in Debt Recovery, who told me that mine was by no means an isolated case. The Allotment Service, he said, "know about this, and keep on doing it". After I received a further three reminders, the Allotment Service claimed on February 28 that they would issue a credit note, but yesterday I received another two letters, now threatening immediate legal action, at which point I made a formal complaint to the Council. Unfortunately I have no faith that this will resolve the problem, but I do hope that publicising this on Wembley Matters might help others who find themselves in a similar position.
Philip Bromberg
(Address supplied)
4 comments:
Very poor and unacceptable service from Brent Council. Too much reliance on IT rather than 'real' people taking responsibility and doing their job properly. For a 'service' organisation this is clearly NOT good enough. The Culture at Brent Council needs to change - a clear priority for the incoming new Chief Executive!
Let's face it Brent Council are useless in so very many ways except primarily with self promotion.
Brent Magazine is full of self promotion - particularly Cllr Mo Butt litter picking in a suit - clearly just turned up for the photoshoot :(
Brent Allotments service are totally ineffective - I'm surprised they even knew his name and address to issue the invoice in the first place. I've heard they are introducing a new billing system for the allotments this year which will no doubt surface further of these bizarre incidents
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