ELEVEN Harrow councillors have been sent reminder letters for non payment of council tax since April last year, the Harrow Times can reveal.

Five were sent letters twice and the outstanding sums ranged from £36 to £1,960, although Harrow Council has refused to reveal whether any were forced to attend court as a result.

The information was brought to light using the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) but the authority answered just four out of 21 questions, claiming the rest could “lead to the identification of individual councillors”.

The council refused to confirm what party the members were from, but did confirm the list includes both Labour and Conservative politicians.

Councillor Bill Stephenson, Labour leader of the council, said: “We depend on council tax to pay for the essential services that our residents rely on and it is so important that every household in Harrow pays it.

“It is also important to remember that these were reminder letters and there may be many, honest reasons why people make a late payment for Council Tax or indeed any other bill.”

He added: “I have been assured by the collections department that all of those council tax accounts are now up to date.”

Councillor Susan Hall, leader of the Tory opposition, said: “This isn't good enough. We are there to set the council tax rate for our residents.

“It's totally unacceptable if any of us have not paid the tax for which we set the rate for others to pay.”