Bristol City Council is owed a mind-blowing £229million in unpaid debt, including nearly £52million of council tax it has failed to collect.
New figures reveal that as of March 31 there were £32m in unpaid Clean Air Zone fines and more than £2m each in outstanding penalty charge notices for both parking infringements and bus lane encroachments.
A report to the strategy and resources policy committee on September 16, said almost £19m in overpaid housing benefits had not been recovered while £15m of rent and other fees had not been paid by current and former council tenants and leaseholders.
And the authority wrote off a total of nearly £19m of debt that it concluded it would never recover, including £5m of council tax and £3m in CAZ fines.
It comes just a month after council leader Cllr Tony Dyer (Green, Southville) warned that the organisation could go the way of local authorities including Birmingham and Nottingham in effectively being declared bankrupt if it could not find savings to plug a £22m budget shortfall this year.
The report acknowledged: “Cost of living pressures are clearly continuing to impact and we are endeavouring to maximise the support we are able to offer through new initiatives and processes.
“The ‘premium rate’ telephone line for payments has been replaced, making calls to this line more affordable. “
It said the council used bailiffs – now called enforcement agents – when there was “no other identified recovery activity available or where those in debt are not engaging”.
The figures were a snapshot in time and that the numbers fluctuated, the report said.
By Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporting Service