WORKERS’ solidarity saved the father of a disabled child from eviction yesterday after a contractor wrongly charged him thousands of pounds in council tax that he was exempt from paying.

Carer Paul Rooney was left with a £2,000 council tax bill and a further £49,000 in solicitors’ fees after Bromley
Council tax collector Liberata failed to process Mr Rooney’s benefits.

Mr Rooney, a former social worker at the council, faced bankruptcy and was set to be evicted yesterday morning.

But bailiffs approaching his home were forced to turn away by 35 people, including local residents and members of the RMT, NUJ, PCS, Unite and IWW unions.

Mr Rooney told the Star that the day’s union action had been “fantastic,” adding: “The council need to accept their mistake and they need to pay off the debt, instead of trying to do me and my family,” he said, adding that the almost 10-year-old case had been “a constant pressure on me.

“I’m looking after a severely disabled child. That’s stressful enough,” Mr Rooney said.

“I contacted my ward, council and my MP to try the make the council see sense and they failed to do so.

“It feels like they have an agenda of their own and don’t want to be involved in a sensible way.

“What Bromley Council are doing is undermining my role as a carer.”

Mr Rooney and his legal team now want the repossession order to be set aside.

The day’s protest was helped by members of Unite Community, whose assistance Mr Rooney called “tremendous.”

The union’s community co-ordinator Pilgrim Tucker said the case “proves that the outsourcing of council’s services to the private sector is a shambles and they should be brought back in house immediately.

“Liberata has presided over an astonishing cock-up and a catalogue of outrageous incompetence. It is shameful, it is ham-fisted and cruel.”

Bromley Council has recently committed to a privatisation programme, cutting its staff from 4,000 to 300 and outsourcing to Liberata.

The self-proclaimed “business process innovation company” also took over the benefits services at Hounslow Council, which were formerly managed by infamous outsourcing group Serco.

A Bromley Council spokesman said: “We do not comment on individual cases. The council is responsible for public money and so will seek to recover debts when it is appropriate to do so.”

 Liberata failed to reply to requests for comment.