“I started to smile as it’s so ridiculous”: Dunstable man gets letter from council arranging ‘weekly or monthly' payments - for 8 PENCE

Tony Cox received the letter from the council, alerting him to the outstanding amount from his 2021/2022 council tax bill.

The letter read: “If you are unable to pay the sum immediately, I would advise you to contact the Revenues Section in order to discuss a weekly or monthly payment arrangement.”

Tony explained: “Obviously it's not the eight pence that bothers me, it's the stupidity that the system is allowed to generate a bill for a few pence which must cost them £1.35 to send and pay for the envelope.

"When I read it and I started to smile as it’s so ridiculous. Why don’t they email me? They do about the bins.”

Central Bedfordshire Council says the letter was sent in error and that it had “written off the amount of 8p”.

the council said: “We would like to apologise to Mr Cox for the inconvenience caused by a recent letter he received regarding his council tax bill.

“The letter was manually generated and sent in error. Our standard procedures include a threshold amount for council tax bills, below which reminders or bills are not normally issued. The amount in question did not meet this threshold, and the reminder should not have been sent.

"Once again, We apologise for the oversight and the inconvenience caused. We will not be sending a letter to Mr Cox so as not to incur any further expense but are happy to email him if he wishes us to do so.”