UNCOLLECTED council tax and business rates in Kirklees topped £9.7m last year.

The figures, released by the GMB union using Department for Communities and Local Government statistics, shows that a total of £9,708,000 was said to be outstanding until the end of the 2010-11 financial year.

The owed council tax amounts to £6,382,000, having accumulated over more than one financial year. And the non-domestic tax – such as business rates – amounts to £3,326,000,

Kirklees sits behind Leeds, Bradford and Sheffield among authorities in Yorkshire and Humberside owed the most.

A spokesman for Kirklees Council said the figures demonstrate how important it is for everyone to pay their share of the council tax to help fund essential council services.

“Unfortunately, there will always be a minority of households who do not pay their council tax bill on time,” he said.

“Kirklees is the seventh largest council in the country, so for Yorkshire and Humber area we will always be towards the top of any monetary list.”

Currently there are 179,758 properties liable for council tax and 14,900 properties for business rates.

Since 2005, the authority has summoned 145,931 council tax payers and 17,155 business rate payers for non-payment of their bills.

The spokesman added: “In common with other councils, Kirklees builds in a bad debt provision of 1.5%, so aims to collect 98.5% of all council tax and business rates raised.

“We take every step available to us to ensure prompt recovery of unpaid debt. We use all of the recovery methods available to collect any outstanding debt.