CHRISTMAS goodwill abandoned the council in cards sent out warning Ellesmere Port tenants ‘your home is at risk if you do not keep to your payments’.
One 86-year-old woman was reduced to tears as she called a councillor worried she would be kicked out of her home if the delayed Christmas post meant her rent payment was late.
Labour councillors are outraged and have been inundated with calls from worried residents, surprised to find Cheshire West and Chester Council’s warning in a jolly-looking Christmas card.
At the council meeting, Cllr Lynn Clare (Lab, Central and Westminster) said: “I wonder how many of these councillors have ever been in financial trouble in their lives. If they had, they would never had sent out these cards because they would know how people feel when they are overwhelmed by debt – and how those feelings of stress treble and quadruple at this time of the year.
“From those of us who have been there, and who understand that at this time of the year you need understanding and support, and not a kick in the teeth, we wish you a peaceful Christmas and hope that, for the short time of the holiday at least, you can relax and try to remember all the good things that Christmas is about and not worry too much about those things that at the moment we have little control over.”
Tory councillor Lynn Riley, executive member for area and community services, said the new council has cut evictions for rent arrears in Ellesmere Port from 17 last year to five this year.
She said: “If our tenants say that Christmas card was the worst idea, don’t send any more of those out, then we won’t.
“I’m sorry if people are upset but we have a duty to keep as many people as possible in the black because the rest of the council tax-payers pay for the people in the red.”
