Council sorry for bill blunder that will cost taxpayers £19,000

Selby District Council confirmed it has been landed with the unexpected five-figure sum after miscalculating the parish and town council precepts on the overall bill for the new financial year.

A spokesman confirmed the mistake had affected bills for all 37,000 properties in the district following significant changes introduced this year to the way in which council tax is administered.

He added: “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.”

The error arose after grants were offered to parish and town councils to lessen the impact of the Government’s funding cutbacks. The initial council tax bills did not reflect the grant payments, and had overcharged residents.

The spokesman stressed the new bills which have been issued this week will be for lower charges, although often by only small amounts. The largest difference is for residents in Selby itself who will be charged about £22 less over the financial year, which started this month.

However, the unexpected additional costs of re-billing comes as the authority is faced with intense financial pressures. The authority is having to make £3.5m in cutbacks, with £1m needed to be saved during the current financial year alone.

Direct debit payments for the council tax bill for April have been suspended, with the standard ten-month instalment plan now running from next month until February next year.