MORE than six months on from an error which saw council tax and business rates from thousands of people in the Stroud district taken early, a recommendation of a review into the fiasco has still yet to be implemented.

In January a report was published by Stroud District Council into the December blunder which outlined six actions for ensuring that the problem did not happen again.

However only four of them have been implemented, with one deemed to be not financially viable and one ensuring staff are always available, which was targeted for implementation by February 10, has yet to be put in place.

The error two days before Christmas saw the council take payments from 5,700 bank accounts, which should have gone out on December 28, early.

At the time it was also identified that the same issue would happen the following week and the same amount as was due to be taken was paid into those accounts by the council before the withdrawal, although it did not work for about 1,700 accounts.

In a report into what had happened, published on January 24, six actions were raised including better training, checks and that staff would be available should a similar incident take place.

Yet, nearly five months from the proposed completion date of February 10 a ‘business continuity plan’ ensuring that relevant council employees are always available is still not in place.

The issue was raised by councillors who said that it was important a “robust plan” was put in place.

Speaking at the meeting of the council’s audit and standards committee last week, Cllr Penny Wride (Con, Berkeley Vale) said: “Business continuity could bring the whole district council into disrepute, that we are unprepared.

"It’s the most important thing that we’ve got to do, to make sure that we’re prepared for business whatever happens and we must make sure that we’ve got a robust plan.”

The error two days before Christmas saw the council take payments from 5,700 bank accounts, which should have gone out on December 28, early.

At the time it was also identified that the same issue would happen the following week and the same amount as was due to be taken was paid into those accounts by the council before the withdrawal, although it did not work for about 1,700 accounts.

A spokesman for Stroud District Council said: “We’ve taken the more pro-active approach of strengthening our internal procedures to prevent problems arising in the first place rather than focussing on what to do when they go wrong.

“This will be much more effective and desirable than fixing a problem after it has occurred – for council tax and business rates payers and the council. 

“We have implemented new, comprehensive procedures on direct debit processing in terms of the software we use, what to check for and authorisation processes using multiple members of staff. 

“These measures effectively mean that more thorough checks will take place and they’ll take place at an earlier stage.”

“Consequently the problems will be prevented from arising again.”