Due to essential maintenance, the website will be unavailable from 8-8:30am on Monday 28 May. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
A statement from Wellingborough Council
Published Tuesday 15th March 11
It has come to our attention that due to an error by our contractor Mainstream Direct a number of householders in the borough have received council tax bills meant for someone else.
Wellingborough Council prints more than 46,000 council tax and business rates bills and these are then passed to the contractor to be put in envelopes and sent out. This is standard practice for councils all over the UK. We have used this contractor previously, as have other local authorities in the county, without problem.
It would appear that on this occasion, however, a mechanical error at the contractor's plant has resulted in more than one bill being put in a single envelope. The cause of this error is being fully investigated by both Mainstream Direct and Wellingborough Council and appropriate action will be taken once the outcome of the investigation is known. The council has also reported the situation to the Information Commissioner, who handles data protection issues nationally.
We sincerely regret any concern or distress this may cause to our customers and we would like to assure customers that everything possible is being done to rectify the situation and ensure it doesn't happen again. We would also like to reassure customers that full personal bank details are not shown on any bill.
In the meantime, we would ask anyone who has received an additional bill in error to immediately destroy it and alert the council on 01933 231 690.
We would also ask that any householder who hasn't received their bill by the end of this week (Friday 18 March), to contact the council so a new bill can be issued.