TENANTS who flee their council homes leaving debts are slipping through the net and remaining in the borough, sometimes moving just a few doors away, Hyndburn Council was told.

The council's housing services committee was slammed by Conservative councillors for writing off rent arrears of nearly £20,000 which committee members were told were unrecoverable.

But some tenants have escaped paying by simply moving a few doors away from their council homes, Coun Peter Clarke told a full council meeting.

Council leader George Slynn appealed to the public to 'shop' debtors by telling the council of their whereabouts.

Coun Clarke said: "Those people who abscond have to go somewhere and I am not convinced they are leaving the borough.

"If a list of absconders were placed in prominent positions throughout the borough, we would get a lot of help from the public.

"As a newcomer to the council I could not believe the housing committee wrote off £20,000 in 30 seconds flat. We are talking about tenants who know and play the system.

"They get pursued through the courts and while all the to-ing and fro-ing is going on, the debt has gone through the roof."

Coun Russell Davies said he knew of one tenant who moved out of council property leaving £400 worth of debt which was not recovered. He said: "If the debt collecting agency had taken a little time they would have found that the tenant was living four doors away and we would not have had to lose so much money."

Coun Cliff Westell said: "This problem bedevils every local authority in the country. Our rent arrears are less than the two per cent recommended by the district auditors."

Council leader Coun George Slynn said: "By law we are not allowed to post the names of debtors up. But if anybody has any information which might shop someone, they should pass the information to councillors or staff."

Conservative leader Coun Peter Britcliffe said: "There is no excuse of some of the debts we have. I don't think we can put notices up outside the town hall to say who owes us money but it's a damn shame that we can't.

"If we could get our hands on this money we could do a lot more for people in the borough."

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