VALE of White Horse District Council may never recover thousands of pounds of unpaid bills for the use of its garden waste service, a scrutiny committee has been told.

An examination of the service last year found thousands of errors in the system, including direct debit bills rejected, invoices not raised for years and errors in records of service users’ addresses.

Since March, the council has been chasing £106,000 of unpaid bills, and has so far recovered £56,000.

But a report to be presented to councillors on Thursday warns: “We may not be able to recover all the money owed if some customers refuse to pay.”