REGARDING your front page article '£1 Million down the drain' (LET, January 10), neither the executive board nor council staff have anything to hide in relation to the collection of income.

The report was, of course, a public document and a statement explaining the situation had already been prepared, but was excluded from your report until the second edition.

As executive member for resources, I can reassure your readers and all residents of the borough that we constantly work together to ensure that we collect the maximum income from council tax, business rates, rents and other income.

The Labour group at Blackburn with Darwen Council has always insisted that the collection of this money is extremely important and we have supported numerous initiatives available to us under the law, including the use of debt collection agencies and tracing agencies, to help find people who have disappeared.

As a result of recent changes in the law, we also collect money through deductions from wages as well as from benefit payments. In addition, we do not hesitate to pursue non-payers through the courts and where agreements are not maintained, bailiff agencies are used to collect monies.

Overall, this council collects about £95 million every year with a collection rate for council tax of 98.5 per cent. One million pounds is a lot of money to write off; in reality, it represents just one per cent of the income we collect, which is a credit to the council and its staff and compares extremely well with other local authorities.

In conclusion, I would like to assure everyone that we are extremely vigorous in the collection of income and even though overall a small proportion of debts may have to be written off, we will still pursue a non-payer if he or she returns to the borough and can be identified.

COUN GAIL BARTON, Executive Member for Resources, Blackburn with Darwen Council.

Footnote: Council officials were asked to comment on the evening of January 9 after the meeting, but we were told a statement would be issued at 9am the next morning. Despite a number of phone calls and attempts to contact Coun Barton, the statement was not released at the promised time. When it did arrive, it was too late for the first edition -- Editor.