MORE than £700,000 in debts had to be written off by Worcester City Council last year.

The sum includes £200,000 in unpaid council tax and more than £500,000 in business tax because firms did not pay up.

The council has published a raft of information revealing tax collection is better than ever in the city - despite the shortfall.

The council has made a fresh request for everyone to pay their bills to avoid the rest of the city "suffering".

Councillor Roger Knight, cabinet member for finance, said: "We do everything we can to help people with their council tax bills and to enable ease of payment, but ultimately those who reject help simply make the rest of the community suffer.

"For 2006/067 we had to write off £504,000 for business rates and £201,000 for council tax. As with every other local authority, there comes a point when it is no longer economically viable to continue to chase certain debts.

"But it remains our plan to reduce this year-on-year and build on the successful strategies we now have in place."

A concerted campaign by the Guildhall last year to get people to pay up - publicised widely in the Worcester News - had a dramatic affect.

The council collected £34,524 in council tax in 2006/07, a six per cent rise on 2005/06.

The council collected £34,445,000 in business rates, which was five per cent more than last year.

The number of reminders for council tax payments dropped 10 per cent from 28,400 in 2005/06 to 25,600 in 2006/07.

Finance chief Grahame Lucas said it was down to a recovery timetable put in place two years ago. He said: "A full recovery timetable has been in place for the past two years and we have stuck to it.

"The number of reminders and final reminders issued for council tax has gone down approximately 10 per cent to 25,600 from 28,400 as more people start to pay up on time."

Wychavon also counts the cost

DEBTS of more than £370,000 accrued within five months have been written off by Wychavon councillors.

* Unpaid council tax and business rates account for most of the money owed between September 2006 and January 2007.

* A total of 170 debts under £660 added up to £34,208 while 36 domestic cases over £660 came to £38,541.

* These were then added to the figure previously written off by the council for 2006/7 bringing the total of lost council tax to £126,806.80 for three-quarters of the financial year.

* £45,960 of unpaid business rates were also written off with £26,327 of the unpaid money owed by companies affected by bankruptcy or liquidation.

* An extra £7,289.09 was written off against sundry debtors, which covers any other debts incurred by the council during its business.

* The full amount written off, which has been agreed by Wychavon councillors, was £371,878.36.