YESTERDAY, I had a councillor tell me it wasn’t in the public interest that he’d been summonsed to court over an unpaid council tax bill.

Most of those named and shamed in today’s paper will undoubtedly bristle at the unwanted attention but a councillor not paying their council tax is akin to militant vegan Morrissey tucking into a steak.

You simply shouldn’t play a part in imposing rules if you’re not going to play by them yourself.

In my job, I spend a lot of time as the unwelcome outsider lurking in the corner at council meetings.

I’ll charitably say that not all local authorities favour an exciting agenda but that never seems to deter them from holding often lengthy meetings.

There’s usually plenty of scope, in between minute details, for staring out of the window (great view from committee room two at Darlington Town Hall) and reflecting on the nature of local democracy.

It often occurs to me that despite the constant slagging off they get, the vast majority of town councillors start out wanting to make a difference for the people they represent.

I don’t think there are many seduced by the glamour of the role, or the desire to get their hands on the axe that provides a seemingly unending supply of swingeing cuts.

But, for some, there’s a gulf that opens up the minute a person steps from the public sphere to the world of town halls and red tape.

Councillors will spend the majority of their election campaigns claiming to understand their potential electorate, often winning their role on the back of a promise that they’re just like us and therefore best placed to represent the issues we care about.

Council tax is undeniably one of the biggest financial burdens for households to bear and, widely, we’re struggling to bear it.

But bear it we must. otherwise we’ll end up in court where nobody has the legal right to stay anonymous for unpaid council tax, no matter how personal our financial situation feels.

I’ll spare the blushes of the Teesside councillor who insisted that the story on elected officials not paying their bills was not a story, that it was a private issue - I won’t name him here, but I’ll use him to illustrate that gulf between us and the town hall.

Why should any councillor believe in their own right to privacy above the public’s right to properly scrutinise and hold to account those elected to represent them?

The role of a politician is a public one and one of power and esteem -councillors should therefore expect, not resent, the scrutiny it must inevitably bring.

If you’re caught out breaking the very rules you help to set, at least have the decency to offer up mitigation instead of a pompous assertion that you have the right to privacy where the people who gave you your power do not.

This is not the first time I’ve heard the words ‘it’s not a story’ coming from those linked to town halls and it won’t be the last - it’s usually best translated as ‘please don’t print that’.

Some councillors would do well to remember that that phrase is usually the first sign to any reporter that the story’s probably even more worthy of attention.