Three Manchester councillors have been caught owing more than £2,500 of unpaid council tax.

Kevin Peel, Rebecca Moore and Nasrin Ali have all been issued with summonses since last November - but all paid off their arrears in time to be allowed to vote through the town hall’s budget in early March, after being warned by their bosses.

Councillors are not allowed to vote on financial issues while owing the council money.

Coun Peel, who represents the city centre , was summonsed last November for £945 in arrears, while Withington’s Rebecca Moore received her letter in December. Both said they were ‘mortified’ by what they insisted were honest mistakes. Levenshulme’s Coun Ali, who by January had racked up £1,200 in council tax debt, did not respond to a request for comment.

Coun Peel admitted he had made a mistake, but also blamed a system that didn’t work the way it was ‘supposed to’.

He said: “Last autumn I did receive a notice from the council that I had missed a council tax payment. I completed a new payment mandate online and assumed all was well as I didn’t receive any other correspondence.

“I was completely unaware of any further action until months later, which is when I first received correspondence on the matter and after looking at my bank statements noticed that payments had not continued as expected. I was of course mortified and paid the balance in full at the earliest opportunity.

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“Councillors are normal people like everyone else and sometimes we make mistakes. It doesn’t help when systems don’t work the way they’re supposed to but the matter is now long since resolved. I have every sympathy with residents who have problems with their council tax and would encourage anyone with issues to contact your local councillor or CAB to seek help.”

Coun Moore said: “I live in a shared house and there was an issue with the direct debit going out. As soon as I got alerted to the issue I paid it off on the same day. I was mortified and paid it in full.”

Coun John Flanagan, the council’s finance chief, said: “Council tax supports essential services for residents and we take its collection extremely seriously.

“Councillors are not treated any differently to anyone else and in these rare cases actions were taken to ensure the amounts owed were repaid in full as quickly as possible.

“The councillors involved are suitably embarrassed and as well as repaying their arrears have taken steps to ensure that this situation does not arise again. People can make mistakes or experience financial difficulties but there are no excuses for non-payment and we’d urge everyone to ensure their payments are up to date. If they are experiencing financial difficulties, they can contact us to arrange a payment plan.”