Poll tax challenge

A NUN who says she would have to abandon her vocation if she was made to pay the poll tax was this week at the centre of a community charge test case.
Sr Carmel Bateson, a member of the Bradford Holy Family of Bordeaux convent, appeared last week before the West Yorkshire Community Charge Appeal Tribunal to challenge a ruling that she should pay the tax.
The council told the tribunal it considered Sr Carmel did not qualify for religious exemption from the tax because of her personal income as deputy head of a Catholic primary school.
But Sr Carmel told the tribunal she had no personal income as her wages were paid under a covenant to the Holy _Family sisters, and it had been a condition of her entering the order that she should do so.
The tribunal's ruling is expected next week.