Computer fault causes council tax failure

More than 9,000 Plymouth residents have not been charged council tax this month following a computer fault at Plymouth City Council.

Councillor Mark Lowry, cabinet member for finance said: "This is hugely regrettable and we are doing everything we can to resolve the situation.

"If residents want to make an immediate payment they can do this through many channels and we will be writing to them with this information.

"We apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused people and we will take every measure to ensure this doesn't happen again."

Alternative payment channels have been set up with option to pay immediately or wait until the end of the month.

The local authority has blamed the incident on a ‘technical fault’ where 9,343 bank accounts failed to be debited.

Those involved have been directly contacted by the council.