PEOPLE who fail to pay their council tax on time are to be given an extra chance to cough up before the bailiffs are sent around.

An extra letter is to be sent to debtors who fall behind with their payments in a bid to get them to seek help to clear their bills.

The move by Blackburn with Darwen Council came as it was revealed that more than 9,000 bailiff referrals were issued last year, out of a possible 84,000 bills issued to 56,000 addresses.

Around 12,000 summonses for court were also issued for non-payment of bills.

The high number of summonses -- 9,000 have already been issued in the first six months of this financial year -- and bailiff referrals have prompted concern from members of one of the council's watchdog committees. And Alan Cotton, director of finance at the council, has also revealed that inspections of areas will take place before bailiffs are sent out to make sure that houses are not empty.

Mr Cotton told members of the corporate resources overview and scrutiny committee: "In many cases, the bailiffs will go round to a house and find out it is empty and obviously that is a waste of time.

"So what we are doing now is inspecting areas, making notes of which houses are empty and then not pursuing claims where we don't think we will get anything.

"It should lead to time being saved. He added: "The additional letter we are sending out gives people one last chance to come and seek help with their bills, to see if a solution can be reached without sending the bailiffs around.

"People incur extra cost if the bailiffs become involved.

"But we have not mentioned this because we do not want to scare people. We want people to come and talk to advice centre staff to sort things out."

It is hoped that the change in tack will lead to a higher collection rate of council tax.

Blackburn with Darwen's council tax collection rate rose 0.9per cent to 94 per cent in the last financial year.

Figures for this year show that by the end of September, 53 per cent of council tax had been collected.

That compares with 51 per cent for the same period last year.

Business rates collection is also up to 63.3 per cent of the year's total collected by September, compared with 62.27per cent last year.