Revised bills due to be sent as council puts right error

A miscalculation over the amount that each household must pay to support their local parish or town councils meant that all households in the district have had to be rebilled.  The mistake was estimated to have cost the council around £19,000 to put right.

The precept error was blamed on significant changes that have been made to the way in which Council Tax is administered from this year.

As part of the Council budget agreed in February, the SDC agreed to offer a grant to parish and town councils to help them deal with the impact of the welfare reform changes.

The mistake meant that SDC did not take the grants into account when calculating the initial Council Tax bills. Importantly, this means the new bills issued this week will, in many cases, be slightly lower than the original charge.

April’s Direct Debits for Council Tax were suspended by the authority, with a standard ten-month instalment plan for this financial year now running between May 2013 and February 2014. Those who have made payments by other means in April will receive a further statement following the revised bill, to reflect money already received.

A spokesman for the Council said, “We took action as soon as we knew there was a problem and we're now in a position to issue the re-calculated bills.

“We're sorry if the changes to payment dates and uncertainty over the final amount have caused problems for anyone – we've tried to minimise the impact by sorting out the issue as quickly as possible.

“Your new bill will not be any more than the previous bill; in many cases it'll be slightly less compared to the original bill you received last month.”

A range of information about the issue can be found on the Council’s website, over the phone on 01757 705101 or in person at the Council’s customer contact centre at the Market Cross Shopping Centre in Selby town centre.