QUITE rightly City of York Council is pursuing its debtors.

The authority has a duty to citizens who always pay their council tax to track down those who fail to do so. That duty is even more urgent when the council is edging towards a financial precipice.

Unfortunately, it seems the benefits of such a crackdown are again to be obscured by its blunderbuss approach. Caught in the crossfire are many York residents who have never been in arrears.

For anyone who is careful to ensure they pay all bills promptly, a letter threatening enforcement action over non-existent debts is both infuriating and frightening.

Worse still, this council tax cock-up comes only months after the last one. In July, the authority sent out 12,000 letters to those allegedly in arrears. That brought in nearly £2 million in overdue council tax.

Yet at least 200 of these letters were sent out to the wrong people. A small proportion, perhaps, but enough to create a great deal of heartache and resentment.

Council officials are wont to point the finger at their computers. The same system which intimidates diligent tax-payers has also been blamed for a major backlog in housing benefit payments, leaving some families in fear of eviction.

Ultimately, though, these are human errors. We hope the letters of apology to wrongly accused residents are checked more carefully than those which prompted their anger.

Updated: 11:41 Tuesday, October 05, 2004