Council mailshot promoting proper spending of public money sent four times

Bosses at a council making millions of pounds of cuts to services sent a letter boasting of their money-saving efforts to the same people four times. Renfrewshire Council have had to apologise to hard-pressed taxpayers after their postal blunder saw the same document drop through letterboxes more than once.



The local authority, forced to lay off hundreds of workers, sent the letter as they hailed the tightness of council purse strings. Bosses claim they were taking part in an “exercise to promote the proper spending of public money”. But a blunder by a council contractor saw postmen delivering multiple copies of the same letter to “a number” of addresses.

Four copies landed at the Paisley home of businessman Ian Arbon, 62. Ian said: “The letters are all about conserving public money. It’s the council’s statutory duty to do so and ensure good value for the taxpayer – and yet they are sending me four copies of the same letter in four different envelopes with the postage paid four times! It beggars belief.”



The council said: “Unfortunately, one of our contractors had problems with their mailing system and sent out several copies of the National Fraud Initiative letter to some addresses. We apologise for this error.”