Council woe

SIR - Following on from the story regarding how Stevenage Borough Council took 15,000 direct debit payments two days before they were authorised to, there are some serious questions that SBC are refusing to answer regarding this action.

How much money in interest did this mistake generate for SBC? Over �2million was collected two days earlier than agreed with direct debit customers.

l What are they going to do with this windfall?

l What specifically happened to cause this error to occur?

l Who was accountable?

l What action have SBC taken against those accountable?

Make no mistake these actions at best have inconvenienced law abiding taxpayers and at worst have caused hardship, bank charges and effected individuals credit ratings, something SBC cannot redress with an apology.

SBC have over the last two years made a number of different types of errors that penalise people in Stevenage, all of which I have personally highlighted to their leadership. They are all mistakes, but they are becoming too frequent.

SBC's leadership is in disarray - this has been recently highlighted by Peter Ollis's (CEO to SBC) resignation - their fiscal policies are wasteful to the point that this year's council tax increase at 3.9% was 30% higher than the national average of 3%, but above all there seems to be a culture of arrogance from SBC's leadership that this latest issue and in particular their reaction to it has highlighted.

I am sure there are many colleagues at SBC who work hard with dedication to try and make Stevenage a better place to live, but at present the public of Stevenage and the vast majority of colleagues at SBC are being let down by some arrogant leadership. Peter Ollis has recognised this with his resignation - who will be next?

DEREK JAMIESON

Wheatlands

Stevenage