I WISH to respond to your article "Tax bill sent to dead woman" (February 12) about a council tax summons sent to the late Mrs Hill.

Firstly, I regret that this unfortunate incident occurred and reiterate our apology to Mrs Hill's family. This is not the standard of service City of York Council aspires to. However, this is an isolated incident among the 80,000 council tax accounts we handle yearly.

Mrs Hill lived in council sheltered accommodation and received support from a number of council officers. Unfortunately, when she moved into a nursing home the council tax team were not notified and were unaware she was no longer a council tax payer.

While we aim to communicate relevant information within the council, we also request that individuals, or their representatives, notify us when their circumstances change, such as moving house. This request is carried on all council literature such as council tax bills.

We remained unaware of the change in Mrs Hill's circumstances and then, later, of her death. The Benefits Agency advised us to terminate Mrs Hill's entitlement to council tax benefit and council tax bills were produced and sent to Mrs Hill's former home.

We were subsequently advised that a new occupant had moved into Mrs Hill's previous home and her liability at that address was then terminated.

Bills for the outstanding council tax were sent at that time. The council tax summons which Mr Hill received in February related to a bill which was issued in August 2002.

This was a most unfortunate incident and we will be looking at our internal communications to try to ensure this does not happen again.

Simon Wiles,

Director of resources,

City of York Council,

Library Square, York.

Updated: 10:31 Tuesday, February 18, 2003