We are using a messaging service to contact our customers.
If your Council Tax account falls into arrears, we may contact you using a text message, email, and/or voicemail reminder before taking further recovery action.
This service can prevent statutory recovery notices being issued and may help you avoid paying expensive costs.
Whilst this service is offered to prevent customers from falling further into arrears, it should not be relied upon.
It is your responsibility to maintain the instalments due on your account in line with your bill. Failure to do so may result in recovery action being taken.
How will the Council Tax team contact you
We may contact you using one or more of the following methods:
- text message and verification screen
- voicemail
How to check if a message is genuine
The text message will include a link to a secure verification screen.
Genuine text message example:
Changes to how we contact you about Council Tax
We are updating the way we contact residents about Council Tax to make our communications quicker, clearer, and easier to use through the introduction of E-billing and vociemail.
E-billing
E-billing allows you to receive your Council Tax bill by email instead of by post.
The benefits of e‑billing
- Receive your bill more quickly
- No waiting for postal delivery
- Keep your bills together in one place
- Reduce printing and postage costs, helping us use public money more efficiently
- Messages sent through our Telsolutions (messaging service) will include a simple one‑tap 'opt in' button to join
Why we are making this change
These improvements will help you:
- receive important information more quickly
- choose how you would like us to contact you
- reduce paper and postage waste
- access secure online options to view bills and make payments
This will reduce delays, prevent missed reminders and provide a make it easier to manage your account.
Digital payment reminders
If your Council Tax payment becomes overdue, we may send a reminder through one of the following:
- text message (SMS)
- Rich Communication Services (RCS) which is a smartphone‑friendly messaging format
How digital reminders help:
- earlier reminders, before a paper notice is issued
- make payments online through secure links
- access to secure one‑tap payments through Open Banking (where available)
- reduced risk of missing a payment deadline
Keeping your information safe
Your security is important to us. To help you recognise genuine council messages, we will:
- add information to our website showing what our texts and emails look like
- provide examples of real messages
- explain how to check that a message has come from the Council
