Halstead: Council admits to double council tax blunder (From Halstead Gazette)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting HG to 80360, or email us Click here for more details »
Halstead: Council admits to double council tax blunder
2:00pm Monday 28th January 2013 in News
Halstead: Council admits to double council tax blunder
Council bosses were again left red-faced after Braintree Council had to go grovelling to hundreds of taxpayers following a double-whammy council tax gaffe.
More than 38,000 residents and 1,700 businesses were affected by the authority’s initial error, which led to £7.7million in council tax and business rate direct debit instalments being taken on August 30, instead of September 3.
It has now been revealed that in the authority’s haste to rectify the problem by reversing the direct debits, 612 accounts where the payments bounced or were blocked by banks because of insufficient funds were also among those refunded.
The second error left the council chasing £113,475.72.
SEE TODAY'S HALSTEAD GAZETTE FOR THE FULL STORY
