THOUSANDS of Somerset residents have been affected by banking errors in the first week of being governed by a new council.

Somerset West and Taunton Council officially came into being on Monday (April 1), replacing Taunton Deane Borough Council and West Somerset Council.

Thousands of people living in what was West Somerset woke up that morning, expecting their council tax or business rates direct debits to carry on as normal.

Instead, they found the money had either not been taken or had been returned to their account.

Sadly, this was not an April Fool, or a gesture of thanks on the part of the new authority – but a problem with the new council’s bank, NatWest.

The new council took to its old Taunton Deane Twitter account on Tuesday (April 2), saying the problem was caused by a “banking error” and that officers were “working with the bank to help them rectify this.”

Later the same day, the council confirmed that the payments would be collected on Thursday (April 4).

A spokeswoman said: “A banking error meant that council tax and business rate payments for residents of the former West Somerset Council were not collected on April 1.

“We have been advised that these direct debit payments will be taken on Thursday, April 4.  The bank has apologised for any inconvenience.”

The council said the error was due to the bank “failing to process some changes in time” and denied any connection between the error and the transformation programme which was carried out while the new council was being formed.

It also confirmed a total of 7,028 bank accounts were affected by this error, all within the former West Somerset area.

West Somerset has a population of 34,865, according to the Office for National Statistics – meaning that up to one in five residents could have been affected by this error.