COUNCIL finance chiefs have come under fire after they wrote off almost £1million in debts in a matter of minutes.

Unpaid council house rents, council tax and business taxes make up most of the cash being abandoned by Blackburn with Darwen Council, leaving those who pay their share to suffer from the effects of the £979,912.46 shortfall.

At a meeting of Blackburn with Darwen Council's executive board last night, eight senior Labour councillors nodded through the write-off without questions or comments.

The decision is due to be rubber-stamped by the all-party executive committee next week, but the leader of the council's Conservative group, Coun Colin Rigby, today slammed the ruling party for not trying hard enough.

Council officials refused to speak publicly about the situation after last night's meeting but said executive member for resources Coun Gail Barton would make a statement today.

It is understood that the written off debts were similar to previous years when unpaid bills were referred to several different council committees.

But Coun Rigby said the cabinet system introduced last year had allowed a small group of Labour councillors to write off a massive amount of cash without discussion "in a matter of minutes."

He said: "Our view is the Labour party are reluctant to go after people and chase debt. They have been writing off these hundreds of thousands for years. If the money is not paid then the people who do pay will be subsidising the non-payers.

"Bolton council take people to court then publish their names and addresses in the papers, along with how much they owe, for rents or rates and so on. Their collection rates are better than ours."

The money being written off includes £320,436.89 from 276 former council house tenants, £103,827.34 from council tax, from 1998 to 2001and £522,029.01 from business rates in 1999-2001.

A further £33,619.22 is also being abandoned from things such as damage to street furniture, work to make buildings safe. The debts include people leaving the area without trace, magistrates writing off council tax arrears and businesses going bankrupt.

A report to the council said: "All the cases have been through the recovery process as far as possible. It is prudent to take a realistic approach to unrecoverable debt."

In 1999-2000 Blackburn with Darwen raised £26million from council tax but expects to collect 98.5 per cent.

So far this year Ribble Valley Borough Council, which collects around £20million in council tax, has written off £24,000 and last year Hyndburn Borough Council wrote off £60,219 in unpaid rents.