Bills to be reissued following council tax blunder (From York Press)

Selby council tax bills to be reissued following figures blunder

9:08am Monday 18th March 2013 in News By Mark Stead, Political Reporter

THOUSANDS of Selby council tax bills will have to be printed and sent out again following a council blunder.

Selby District Council has been forced to suspend payments for a month after issuing bills including the wrong amounts for the precepts parish and town councils receive, leading to residents being told they would pay more than expected.

A Selby councillor branded the error “ludicrous” and said the authority should include apology letters when the corrected bills are distributed.

Selby North councillor Steve Shaw-Wright said: “This was certainly avoidable, because council tax is one of the district council’s main functions and the bills were surely checked three or four times before being issued, but it seems nobody spotted this mistake.

“It means there will be extra printing and postage costs for the district council. Residents will be have looking at these bills and wondering where these amounts came from.”

A district council spokesman said: “As soon as we were alerted to the issue, we took immediate steps to correct it.

“No bills will be higher, and most will actually be slightly lower than those which have been issued, but this means we need to reissue the bills.

“We’ll do this as soon as possible.”

The mistake occurred because the precept amounts did not take into account national grant funding which the district received, meaning the amounts requested from taxpayers were too high.

Bills for residents in the area covered by Selby Town Council stated the precept – representing the amount parish and town councils receive from overall council tax payments – would be £124.84 for Band D properties, 25.5 per cent higher than in 2012/13.

The town council had agreed a three per cent precept increase, meaning the correct precept amount was £102.50.