One in eight households had their details passed to enforcement agents
A knight in shining armour literally threw down the gauntlet to the leader of Bristol City Council over the continued use of bailiffs to chase council tax arrears.
It was part of a protest outside City Hall by dozens of campaigners from community union ACORN against the local authority passing on unpaid bills to enforcement agents, despite the fact it has an “ethical” debt recovery policy.
In response, the council’s deputy leader said she had met with the union and was working with it on a fact-finding mission over debt recovery processes and communication between the authority and those who owed it money, while admitting work was still needed to protect the city’s most vulnerable residents from legal action and repossessions.
ACORN Bristol launched its campaign in November calling for an end to bailiffs recovering council tax arrears, along with the collection of any council debt from residents on benefits, council tax support and working people on low incomes.
But it says nothing tangible has happened since and that a bailiff prevented one of its members with leukaemia from meeting her hospital appointment.
So it organised a demonstration, led by a “medieval knight” named “Sir ACORN”, on College Green on Tuesday evening (May 13) to repeat its demands and ramp up the pressure.
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As reported last year, the union slammed the council for sending bailiffs to chase 27,146 outstanding council tax bills in the 12 months from April 2023 to March 2024 – roughly one out of every eight households in the city.
That’s despite the council’s policy stating it would follow a “fair and proportionate recovery and enforcement process”, taking into account whether those whose details were passed onto bailiffs were vulnerable and their ability to pay.
But ACORN members claim they have been unfairly intimidated, harassed and bullied by debt enforcers.
One of them, Chantelle, said: “After I got this intimidating letter from the bailiffs I wasn’t eating properly, wasn’t sleeping.
“I tried to contact them but they hung up on me.
“I was constantly thinking about it, worried they’d take away my car – I need my car to get my kids to school.
“I couldn’t sleep. I was mostly worried for my kids.
“I’m only in this situation because I lost my job as a carer recently.”
Another, Hannah, said bailiffs had emailed her to say enforcement action would be halted because of her health problems.
“Yet two weeks later I had a visit from bailiffs at my door just as I was about to leave for a hospital appointment, with a clamp for the car,” she said.
“They blocked me from attending a leukaemia appointment.
“I explained I had an email from their welfare team but he was having none of it.
“He blocked me on my drive and stood with the clamp, saying I had to pay £440 then or he would clamp.
“He was very rude and I felt very intimidated.”
Acorn chanting outside City Hall
ACORN member Lee said she had her car clamped and the bailiff refused to accept she was vulnerable or even look at any evidence she tried to give.
She said he was intimidating, dismissive and rude, and refused to consider setting up an affordable payment plan.
ACORN intervened and managed to get the clamp removed and a payment plan was set up, but the union said its efforts should not have been necessary.
A phone call to another vulnerable union member recorded a bailiff saying: “I’m an enforcement agent, not a support agent.
“My job is to remove your belongings, it isn’t to help you make a payment.
“That’s literally what I’m employed to do.”
The protesters stuck “wanted” posters of Bristol City Council leader Cllr Tony Dyer (Green, Southville) to City Hall’s front doors, calling him “sheriff of Bristol council” and that he was wanted for sending bailiffs to “attack our communities”.
Reading from a scroll, “Sir ACORN” said: “In Norman England, the fiendish villain of the bailiff was invented.
“They recovered debts through a method called distress.
“Yet still today our noble Bristol residents are subject to distress by virtue of these blaggards.
“Bailiffs come to the door of the weary man whose purse is emptier than a friar’s ale jug.
“They come for the widow who has paid all she could save for a single missed parking permit.
“They come to another who chose bread over a council tax bill and they take both in return.
“This is not governance, this is not order, this, my friends, is extortion writ in times of Norman.
“We have demanded concrete commitments from the council on abolishing this medieval practice, but all they have to say is more needs to be done.
“Today we must demand more than just sentiment.
“Bristol City Council, the people throw their gauntlet at you.
“We will not be silent, nor become complacent – we are organised and steadfast.
“Commit to a timeline for abolition, stand up for your communities and rise to Sir ACORN’s challenge.”
Bristol City Council deputy leader Cllr Heather Mack (Green, Lockleaze) said: “I have met with ACORN to learn about their campaign and we’re now working to establish how the council’s debt recovery processes operate and the effectiveness of communication between the council and those who owe monies.
“The outcomes of this fact-finding will inform further discussions with ACORN and other interested groups on the topic of how the council recovers debt.
“I thank ACORN for their work on this subject, and can see that this issue impacts many across the council, and although we have an ethical debt recovery policy there’s still work to be done to protect those most vulnerable in our city.”
The council said council tax collection processes were set out in legislation but that the revised version of the organisation’s corporate debt management policy, from April this year, removed non-statutory letters that were not required to be sent by law, which were in the previous policy.
It said all enforcement agents were certificated and authorised to act by the county court and must comply with legal requirements over training and practice.
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