A JUDGE will decide if town-hall bosses should reveal why a mystery councillor failed to pay council tax on time.

The Bolton News has been leading a long-running campaign to force Bolton Council to name the Labour representative who was twice summonsed to court for not settling bills totally £1,975.

Our requests for the councillor’s name have been rejected by the council, a town-hall case reviewer, the Information Commissioner and the First Tier Tribunal.

The Upper Tribunal’s administrative appeals chamber has been dealing with the case since last August with media law firm Wiggin LLP is representing The Bolton News.

Our investigation revealed that the councillor was summonsed to court at some point between May 2011 and April 2012 for not paying £936 in council tax. The summons was withdrawn after they paid the bill in full.

The councillor was then sent another order to go to court at some point between May 2012 and April 2013 for not paying £1,039.89.

The summons was withdrawn after they entered into a payment plan with Bolton Council.

Critics have claimed that councillors should pay the very tax that they help set and should be named and shamed if not.

But council lawyers argue the councillor in question was dealing with particular issues at the time of the non-payment — a key reason why they have not been named.

Now, Kate Markus QC, an Upper Tribunal judge, has decided to preside over a court hearing to decide if the council should provide The Bolton News with a list of what those issues were.

The closed-session hearing is expected to be held in London before October and will take up to half a day.

It is possible further hearings will take place to decide whether the individual should be named.

Speaking anonymously last year, one Bolton Labour councillor appealed for the individual to come forward as they were putting colleagues under suspicion.

The councillor said: "Despite being hard-working public servants who got into politics for the right reasons and want to help people, Bolton Labour councillors are being tarred with an unpleasant brush.

"One person has the ability to put a stop to it."

Bolton Council leader, Cllr Cliff Morris has said that the issue is a private matter for the individual in question to deal with.