Border Telegraph | News | Council admits tax blunder

Tuesday, 6th January, 2009

Published: Tuesday, 9th September, 2008 23:55

Council admits tax blunder

By David Knox

Comments (2)

Print Article

Image related to story, see caption or article text

A COUNCIL TAX blunder has seen a street in Galashiels recoup almost £100,000.

And dozens of former residents are also in line for up to 15-years worth of refunds.

But red-faced council bosses are attempting to keep the banding mistake under wraps – and won’t even name the street.

Houses across the town were given council tax bands back in 1993 according to their valuation from the year before.

Around 2,000 objections against bandings were lodged in the Borders during the first year.

But an appeal made to the local assessor earlier this year has resulted in an entire area being regraded from Band B to Band A – producing an average annual saving of around £100 going back to April, 1993.

And every householder was entitled to back money for the previous years’ payments.

Local council tax assessor Les Walker told the Border Telegraph: “The proposal which questioned the banding was actually made out of the required timescale, which is within six months of someone moving into a property, but I still had the power to look at it and change it if I felt it was required.”

Letters and cheques totaling almost £100,000 have now been sent out to householders on the street.

But legislation also means the council has to make efforts to trace other residents who have overpaid during the past 15 years.

We offered to help Scottish Borders Council by publicizing the banding blunder – but they insisted data protection wouldn’t allow any publicity.

And a hard-fist gagging order on officials prevents them from talking to the media.

A Scottish Borders Council spokesperson said: "We have a duty to ensure that anyone who has over-paid Council Tax gets that money back and we are making sure that happens.

“We strongly refute any suggestion that we are withholding the name of the affected street for anything other than sound legal reasons.

"We have amended every Council Tax account on every property which was re-banded back to April 1993.”

Comments