"Tories take West Berks to bottom of table"- Brooks & Gaines

12.05.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 12th Oct 2006

The Conservative Council has wasted time and tax payers money, and left £1.43m in council tax uncollected

West Berkshire Council has dramatically fallen to the bottom of the league table of South East Councils for collecting council tax in the past year. In the year since Conservatives came to power in West Berkshire, the authority has slumped to 92nd place out of the 94 councils, leaving £1.43 million uncollected.

Councillor Jeff Brooks, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Opposition on West Berkshire Council was critical of the drastic slip in standards over the past year:

"I find it appalling that in just over a year of Tory rule in West Berks, the levels of taxes left uncollected have increased by over half a million pounds. I am extremely disappointed that the Tories have taken their eye off the ball and let West Berkshire slide to the bottom of the table - 92nd out of 94 councils is unacceptable. This is just typical laziness we have grown all too used to seeing from the current administration. They have effectively relegated us from a healthy 37th place to 92nd in the space of a year."

The report from GMB shows other councils in the South East were able to improve their tax collection rates by as much as £574,000 on the previous year. In West Berkshire's case, tax collection dropped by almost this amount - £543,000.

Lib Dem Finance Spokesperson Denise Gaines commented:

"This is a huge sum of money! This money could have been used to finance a wide range of underfunded and overstretched services. It is ironic that the Conservatives have wasted time and council tax payers' money, employing outside consultants in an effort to claw back single occupancy discounts, when all the time they were displaying appalling incompetence in failing to collect council tax. What are they playing at?"

Note to Editor:

Council tax collection statistics for South East Councils produced by GMB.