Tiny tax bill typo costs Bristol taxpayers £200k

A TINY typo has cost Bristol council taxpayers almost £200,000 in a blunder on council tax bills.

- ALEX SEABROOK Local Democracy Reporter

Last month Bristol City Council sent out 239,143 letters explaining a "typographical error" on this year's council tax bill - with zero impact on how much households are actually paying.

As part of paying council tax, a small precept also goes towards the Avon Fire Authority and the Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset.

This year these precepts increased by five per cent for the commissioner and 5.9 per cent for the fire authority.

But the council initially said in its bills that this was the other way round: 5.9 per cent for the commissioner and five per cent for the fire authority.

The overall council tax bill remains the same, but by law the council had to write to households explaining their embarrassing mistake.