Ann Widdecombe

Ann Widdecombe is a renowned author and British politician, serving as a Conservative Party MP from 1987 to 2010. She is also known for her appearances on reality TV shows like Strictly Come Dancing.

BBC bullies' shame in licence fee chaos

THERE was a time, not very long ago, when renewing a television licence was a straightforward business.

You used to be able to get your licence from the Post Office You used to be able to get your licence from the Post Office

One merely walked into a post office, handed over the money and came away with a new licence.

Alas, as part of its campaign to make the sub post office redundant, the Government has removed this simple facility and has put nothing reliable in its place.

“Where is the nearest paypoint?” I asked the young team working in my office. Just imagine what the answer would be were it to be asked by an elderly person living in a rural location. As it was the answer to my query was no more encouraging.

“Forget paypoint,” my researcher told me. It transpired that when she had endeavoured to purchase a licence that way the merchant had no idea what the sum should be.

So I paid online and my next credit card statement showed the sum had been deducted almost immediately and three weeks before the payment was due. End of story, I thought, and persisted in that happy delusion until a week ago when a threatening letter arrived informing me that if I was using my TV it was in contravention of the Communications Act 2003 and committing an offence.

The letter was addressed to my late 95-year-old mother who had brought a television into my home when she came to live with me and had therefore taken responsibility for the licence.

I appreciate that most 95-year-olds would not have received such a letter as they would be exempt from payment but plenty of people in their early 70s might receive this threat and such people tend to be intimidated when informed they are breaking the law.

I would have dismissed this as a rare mistake if my constituency caseworker had not told me that he has received no fewer than 10 reminders despite having paid by direct debit and having rung TV Licensing on more than one occasion.

So in a small office of three people three have encountered difficulties, one with cash, one with online payment and one with direct debit. If that sample is grossed up nationally TV Licensing must be in a bigger administrative mess than the Child Support Agency.

I decided to complain officially and asked for the name of the chief executive of this incompetent outfit. The post apparently no longer exists but there is someone called head of revenue management at the BBC.

That is just as well as a visit to the website lists a bewildering number of companies involved in the licensing operation and any one of them might have been responsible.

Why did they not leave the entire operation with the Post Office, which was efficient and trustworthy? It is quite bad enough to have to pay tax (because that’s effectively what it is) to enable the BBC to churn out a diet of sex, bad language, irregular living and dumbed-down reality shows, if one wants to catch the odd good programme, without having this kind of hassle.

Meanwhile post offices are being axed in the sort of butchery that Beeching brought to the railways. It is, we are told, because they’re no longer viable.

Rot. They have been driven out of business by a Government which cannot run clean hospitals, teach primary school children to read, keep account of the numbers of immigrants entering the country or build enough prison places to keep felons where they belong.

TV licence-payers are just the latest victims of ineptitude and laziness. Payments are apparently collected in Bristol but might just as well be outsourced to Bangladesh for all the notice that is taken of those received.

I have suggested to my caseworker that the next time he receives a reminder for a payment he has already made he should write to the legal department of the BBC to threaten an action for harassment.

Nay, an ASBO might be more ap­propriate for this gang of pensioner-stalking muggers.

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?