IN response to the letter 'Did the delay earn interest' (Times, May 2) regarding council tax direct debit payments, West Devon Borough Council would like to issue a formal response.
The council has been using the direct debit system to collect council tax payments for 12 years and processes more than 100,000 payments annually. A processing snag occurred in the April 2002 direct debit run, which resulted in two monthly payments being taken from the bank accounts of a small number of direct debit customers.
The council would like to stress that the only customers affected were those who paid a direct debit instalment in February 2002. This is the first direct debit error which has occurred in 12 years and it only affected 1,700 customers out of the 10,000 council taxpayers who pay by direct debit.
Arrangements were immediately made to repay the February instalment. The working conventions used by banks prevented same-day repayment.
All affected customers received a written apology the same day.
It is correct that the council did receive a small amount of bank interest but it cost far more than this to remedy the situation. However, these costs will be fully refunded by the responsible contractor.
A small number of council taxpayers did go overdrawn on their bank accounts. These customers have been fully reimbursed on demand for all consequential bank charges and expenses.
We take pride that the situation was corrected so capably and in fact some customers have phoned us to express appreciation of our prompt and efficient action. For those who wish to know more about this, please contact us on 01822 813752.
We do apologise to those who have been inconvenienced.
David Incoll
Chief executive
West Devon Borough Council