A COMPUTER glitch which led to thousands of Forest Council Tax and Business Rates payers being charged twice was not spotted by bank “fail-safe” systems.

A review of the mistake found the council’s bank and the payment system company were responsible for the error.

While it praised council for staying late and working over the weekend to limit the damage, councillors have criticised the way in which the authority tried to warn people.

An old payment process was mistakenly reactivated during a system update, leading to duplicate direct debits for instalments due on Friday, August 31 and Saturday, September 1.

Measures have since been put in place to ensure there is no repeat of the error or the failure to spot it.

An outdated payment process, which should have been permanently.

A council task and finish group which reviewed the error and steps taken since to avoid a repeat reported back to the overview and scrutiny committee.

Committee chairman Cllr John Francis (Ind, Longhope and Huntley) said: “Errors of this kind are extremely rare and direct debit to remains a safe, convenient, and reliable way to pay council taxes and business rates.

“Council staff that went beyond staying over the weekend, working late, to keep residents informed of the progress.”

Former council leader Cllr Tim Gwilliam said the way in which the problem had been communicated had left many people unhappy.

He said: “The communications made on this particular subject to the public I think had a great deal to do with the unhappiness that was felt

“I appreciate things where dealt with soon as they could be operationally, and these things sometime happen.

The public…hold us as councillors and in particular the leadership, accountable for any mistakes.

“From talking to the Cabinet member, he wasn't made aware of this until I think after the weekend

“After that, it would have been prudent for the administration to speak on behalf of the council, apologise, explain the situation was in hand

“Going forward, that would be positive for the people of the Forest of Dean.”

Cllr Gillian Kilmurray read a message from a “frustrated” constituent who had been affected by the mistake and had found out about through a Facebook post by the Conservative councillor for Dymock.

In the message, she said: “To find out via our councillor on a Facebook post just because I happen to be part of Facebook and part of that group isn't acceptable. “There will be thousands waking up today blindsided by this, and in bigger financial problems than us and may now be panicking.

“I think it's really poor for the council not to contact their residents directly.”

Finance director Andrew Knott said that if anyone was having issues as a result of the mistake, they should contact him.

“That is the message that we have been given out from day one.

“I’ve been in touch with two or three people, and I've personally contacted their bank to make sure that they had been reimbursed.”