Sandi Thom takes a while to settle a bill

Back in April 2014, Sandi Thom played Egremont Market Hall in Cumbria.

It's taken a while for the council to get the money for the hire of the venue:

Egremont councillor, Elaine Woodburn, said they tried to contact the singer but had no luck in getting a response about the money owed.

“We e-mailed her agent and messaged her on Facebook and Twitter but we never got anything back,” said Coun Woodburn.

It's all a terrible mistake, apparently.

hen The Whitehaven News contacted Sandi Thom about the unpaid bill she replied in an e-mail saying: “My colleague had posted the cheque to the council months ago and if the council has not received it, then it was simply a mistake and perhaps got lost in the post. I’d be more than happy to pay them if they haven’t received the cheque and I look forward to playing the Maryport festival in July when I return to that neck of the woods.”

The cheque got lost in the post - presumably sometime around 1973 when people used to pay bills by sending cheques through the post. And presumably the emails also got lost in the post. And then the Facebook and Twitter messages - why, you know what the Royal Mail's like for not getting those to the places on the envelopes.

Still, nice work for Sandi on turning a consumer journalism story into a chance to plug a forthcoming gig.

And has the bill been paid yet?

Geraldine Pritchard, Egremont Town Council’s financial officer, said: “Since being contacted by The Whitehaven News, Sandi Thom has contacted us asking for our bank details to pay the money. No cheque had been sent to us otherwise it would have been cashed but hopefully we will get the money soon.”

Not quite.