A BROMSGROVE councillor is demanding that a full investigation be carried out, after a staff error caused resident's council tax payments to be taken out of their bank accounts five days early.

The money was set to be charged to residents on Friday, October 21, but a processing error made by Bromsgrove District Council last week meant the payments were accidentally included in another routine bill due to come out on Monday.

The council has apologised for the error, which they say could not be reversed, and is reassuring tax payers that they will not incur additional costs as a result.

Head of customer services Amanda Singleton said: "We are very sorry if this unfortunate error causes anyone any inconvenience. It will not cost anyone any money, however, as if these early payments result in any charges they can be reimbursed. We will also be writing to everyone affected detailing some extra support if required.”

But leader of the Bromsgrove Labour Group Luke Mallett is demanding that a full investigation be carried out.

He said: "Local residents should expect to have confidence in the council deducting the right money for tax at the right time. The council has seriously failed to do this at an as yet unknown cost to the taxpayer.

"It is not acceptable to simply put this down to a 'technical error' - it highlights a significant and fundamental failing in the Council's systems and controls that has allowed such an error to slip through the net. Yet again Bromsgrove Council is failing local residents and a full investigation is required. Ultimately the buck needs to stop with the senior officers at the council who allowed such a failure to occur."

Council leader Geoff Denaro said: "While I agree with Cllr Mallett that this is not acceptable, as soon as it came to our attention we took immediate action to inform our residents so they wouldn’t be inconvenienced – this was our priority.

“Of course we will look into our internal procedures to ensure that this does not happen again.”

The council is assuring residents that the payments will not be taken again on October 21.

Any residents worried that they may experience problems as a result of the early payment on Monday are urged to visit bromsgrove.gov.uk/october or contact the council's revenues team on 01527 881 288.