THE leader of Stroud District Council has apologised after thousands of people had money taken from their bank accounts by mistake.
Steve Lydon (Lab, The Stanleys) has asked for a report to be prepared investigating how the error happened.
Council tax and business rate payments were taken by mistake from 5,700 accounts on December 23 by Stroud District Council, leaving families in limbo in the run-up to Christmas Day.
The payments were scheduled to leave accounts on December 28.
Several families told the SNJ that the error left them with no money over the Christmas period.
Cllr Lydon said: "As council leader, please accept my sincere apologies if you were one of those affected by the mistake we made with our council tax direct debits.
"I have asked for a full report of how and why it occurred.
"This will be made public, and immediate steps are being taken to ensure this does not happen again."
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