Council tax rebel, 85, vows: 'I'll go to jail'

Beryl Pearce is the latest rebel prepared to spend time behind bars in protest at the Government's refusal to make life easier for the elderly by stopping council tax increases.

The grandmother told of the drastic stance that could make her the oldest member yet of a nationwide revolt as she was summonsed before magistrates for non-payment.

Mrs Pearce, who spent the Second World War as an RAF nursing orderly, owes her council one month's tax of £71 plus legal fees of £15.

She lives in Band B-rated sheltered accommodation in Andover, Hampshire.

Before a preliminary hearing yesterday, she said: "With the prisons being full - there's a lot of us doing this - they have a problem and will have to think about what they're doing.

"It's a case of heat or eat - where's the justice in that? I have worked since I was 14 and I have served my country. I have nursed in old people's homes since the war.

"I'm not worried about prison. I have been through worse things in my life."

Mrs Pearce, who has two children, four grandchildren and her first great-grandchild due in September, can afford to pay her council tax but is prepared to go to jail as a matter of principle to help others.

She has a pension from a civil service job and one through her late husband's job with British Airways.

After yesterday's hearing before Andover Magistrates, a Test Valley Borough Council spokesman said: "If the bill is not paid we may have to take further action.

"A custodial sentence is a last resort and we would hope to resolve it before it got to that stage."