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)
