THE cultural damage of the poll tax will take years to put right, Burnley Council's finance chairman Peter Kenyon has warned.

He revealed that large amounts of community charge cash is still being pulled into the town hall coffers, a full six years after the controversial tax was scrapped.

Last year alone around £200,000 of unpaid poll tax was recovered by the council.

In addition, the town hall exceeded its 94 per cent council tax collection target for the 12 months - all helping to repair the "won't pay" culture.

In his annual budget speech, Coun Kenyon said the amount which has to be allowed for write off of irrecoverable debt can be progressively reduced.

"This means that almost £300,000 will be returned next year to local taxpayers, the equivalent of £12 for the average Burnley council taxpayer or £8 for most people in the band A terraced house properties."

Coun Kenyon said the successful collection of the council tax is crucial to Burnley's financial stability.

"The introduction of poll tax in 1990 had a devastating effect on many residents and also on our ability to collect the amounts which were due.

"This cultural damage will take years to be put right, but the application of fair and consistent collection procedures in recent years has seen our performance improve dramatically."

Coun Kenyon said he was confident the town's council tax collection target for the current year would be met and an improved target of 95 per cent would be set for the coming 12 months.

"I should like to thank the staff in our local taxation service and more generally the people of Burnley for achieving these marked improvements in collection performance.

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