Did the delay earn interest?

WEST Devon Borough Council took two lots of council tax (last year's amount plus this year's amount) from all its direct debit customers and held the money for five days. I regard both the mistake and the delay as quite unacceptable.

We have been offered only a scant apology, no explanation and no compensation. Presumably our money earned some interest in five days and meanwhile some of us will, unwittingly and unknowingly, have gone overdrawn.

As a programmer who in the mid-1960s wrote part of the first ever UK computer 'rating suite' (for a mainframe computer of course) I feel I have a particular 'axe to grind' in this matter.

Marjorie Corner

3 Parkwood Court

Tavistock