A FEW months ago you published a letter written by someone regarding your newspaper printing the names and addresses of people who have defaulted or are in arrears with their Council Tax. You use the words "name and shame".

I agree totally with everything this reader said.

Some people are ashamed enough at not being able to afford this ridiculous payment. They have bailiffs visiting their homes, are threatened with prison, and you add to the problem by printing their names and addresses. You didn't give a reply to the reader who wrote in last time, so I presumed that you'd listened to what they said. But no, recently you printed full pages on a weekly basis of these people, whose only crime is not earning a great deal of money.

I am hoping that you will print this letter, and hopefully will give a reply explaining why it's so necessary to humiliate people like this.

By the way, I am a fully paid up Council Tax payer.

Mrs J Johnson

Sapling Road

Bolton

Editor's note: The BEN publishes the names of people who fail to pay their Council Tax because it is in the public interest to do so.

Your complaint about it being a "ridiculous payment" should be directed at politicians not newspapers.

As for saying that these people's only crime is not earning a great deal of money, how do you know this to be the case? There are many people who don't earn a lot of money but still manage to pay their Council Tax, regardless of whether they agree with it or not, because to refuse is breaking the law.

Conversely, there are people who do have the money to pay but refuse.

A newspaper cannot be expected to differentiate and take reasons into account, that is the court's job. We merely print the names of those the court deems have broken the law.