SIR - Bradford Council has worryingly written off over £18m of unpaid council tax in the last five years (T&A, July 10).

Indeed, in the last financial year alone a huge £6.47m of tax was written off.

The council has already been extracting the maximum possible from us on our annual rates bills. Just think, for example, how many more library staff could have been retained, or public conveniences kept open, if all this money had been collected. That it has reached such levels really is scandalous, and something that has affected all honest ratepayers in the city.

Bob Watson, Springfield Road, Baildon