Around 3,000 people in the Cotswolds are receiving council tax bills this week with the wrong payment schedule.

Due to a system error, residents who usually pay monthly over 12 months have been sent a bill with payments over 10 months instead. Monthly payments on these bills are therefore higher than would be expected.

Just under seven per cent of households across the district have been affected, but anyone who usually pays their bills over 10 months will see no difference.

Council tax bills are issued every year with residents getting the option to pay their bills over either 10 months or 12 months depending on their preference.

All households affected will be sent an amended bill by Saturday, March 27 showing the payments changed back to a 12-month schedule.

Payments are not due to be taken until April 6, so nobody will need to make a higher payment.

Jan Britton, managing director of Publica Group who manage the council tax billing process on behalf of Cotswold District Council said, “We would like to apologise to any residents who have received this inaccurate bill and any confusion or upset it may have caused.

“Our teams did a huge amount of work to get the bills out this year as we were bringing in a new system to improve our efficiency.

"Despite extensive testing, some bills defaulted to a different payment scheme. They are devastated this error has occurred.

“We will have correct bills issued by next week and will automatically change the payment systems back to residents previous preferences so there is no impact on what residents are paying.”

In the Cotswolds a Band D household will be billed £1,818.23, excluding parish and town councils. This will be an increase of £81.73 for the year.