PRESTON Borough Council is losing more than £1,000 a day in unpaid rent arrears, local Liberal Democrats have claimed.

Between May 1998 and May 1999, Preston Borough Council wrote off 11,113 debts totalling £373,212, working out at a loss of £1,060, according to Lib Dem councillor Joe Fitzgerald.

The figures having prompted Coun Fitzgerald to propose a three-point action plan to save money.

Coun Joe Fitzgerald, ward councillor for Preston Rural West said: "£1,000 a day is too heavy a price for Prestonians to pay for rent arrears.

"We need to place a strong watchdog committee which can adopt a carrot and stick approach where necessary."

Included in his action plan is:

The creation of an arrears panel made up of councillors who will interviewing in-arrears tenants. The committee would provide support and advice to tenants but would have the power to take firmer action if necessary;

The possibility of introducing systems operated by other councils and housing authorities whose problems with debt arrears are much smaller;

A proposal to lobby the government to simplify the housing benefit scheme so that complicated re-calculations of entitlements are not distorting figures on tenants and accounts.

Coun Fitzgerald added: "We need to give support to those tenants in genuine hardship difficulties but we must also weed out those who do a moonlight flit."

But housing committee chairman Coun Ken Cole said the figures were over-inflated.

He said: "We don't just write arrears off. When a person re-appears, we re-write the debt back on and our officers work very hard to collect debts.

"Arrears are falling rapidly but sometimes we just can't collect the debt. Recently, one person was found dead on a beach.

"How do you collect that debt?

"I think it is safe to say Coun Fitzgerald is yet to understand housing."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.