WITH councils so hard up for cash it is galling to hear that there are millions owed over business rates.

Those who were so upset over cuts to children's services, children's centres and day centres will be upset to know that they - or at least some of them - could have been avoided.

There will always be ongoing debts with a city of ours size. And there are huge efforts to recover the funds no doubt.

But this does not make it any easier to swallow.

If you get behind on your council tax do not expect the council to write that money off.

No they will be coming after you - make no mistake.

This country has been left on its knees by the banks before and if there are any businessmen out there playing a system which sees such huge sums of money being written off then they need to be brought to task.

We cannot name and shame the people helping to leave our council and ultimately us short because the council has decided to protect them.

The council claims it would not be in the public interest and could damage the reputation of those who owe.

This reasoning is up there with the case of the refusal to release CCTV images after a theft at a sheltered housing block - claiming they wanted to avoid a witch hunt.

This money is public money and if there are huge sums - which is the case - we have a right to know who it is.

Maybe not those who only owe in the very short term of course.

But some of these debts are over three years old.