AN investigation has been called for after a council spent �9,000 sending letters to householders to correct a mistake in a brochure about its spending.
AN investigation has been called for after a council spent �9,000 sending letters to householders to correct a mistake in a brochure about its spending.
Suffolk Coastal was forced to send out around 40,000 letters because figures quoted in a booklet accompanying council tax bills sent out earlier were wrong.
Labour councillor Mike Deacon was appalled that a time of tight budgets, money was having to be wasted sending out thousands of letters to correct mistakes
He is asking the authority's chief executive Stephen Baker to investigate how such mistakes were not spotted earlier.
“While the amount of council tax does not change, we will all pay for this mistake in future bills,” said Mr Deacon, a Felixstowe councillor.
“The Conservative-led authority should be conducting an investigation into how this happened and who is responsible.”
Cabinet member for resources Robert Whiting said: “The government makes the council include an information booklet with its council tax bills and changes made at the full council meeting the night before the booklet was published were unfortunately not included.
“The lessons have been learnt and an additional check will be made next February before it is published.”
Was it necessary to send out the correction letters? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk
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