A FARMER refusing to pay council tax until his local authority pays him money owed from a compulsory land purchase has appeared in court.

Peter Raine and his wife Susan, from Brusselton Farm, in West Auckland, were summoned before South Durham Magistrates Court in relation to £1,712 in unpaid council tax and domestic rates.

Mr Raine, 61, told the hearing at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates Court on Wednesday, December 9 that Durham County Council issued a compulsory purchase order for the West Auckland bypass to be built across some of his farmland in 2005.

The couple received 90 per cent of the payment several years ago but remain out of pocket by thousands of pounds from the ten per cent still owed.

He said: “They have had eleven years of free money from the interest on it.

“This just goes on and on and meanwhile the county council expects us to pay our council tax every year.

“We are not trying to get out of paying it, we just want to postpone paying it until Durham County Council pays us.

“It doesn’t seem fair that they expect me to pay them every year, on the nail, when they owe us all that money.

“This is basically a protest because I had nowhere else to go.”

Michaela Carr, who appeared on behalf of Durham County Council, requested a liability order be imposed and told the court that paying council tax was separate to the compulsory purchase order issue.

She said: “We have a duty to the public purse and need to be seen to be collecting that.

“Any issues with other departments are irrelevant.”

Chairman of the bench, Ged Canavan, said: “It is with great reluctance that my colleagues and I have got to issue a liability order.

“Our hands are tied.

“There is little or nothing we can do under the council tax regulations to defer the payments.

“As far as council tax is concerned, there is no leeway - you have to pay it.”

Mr Canavan requested that the court costs should be waived for the case.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Raine described the application to waive court costs as “a moral victory.”