Kingston Council is owed almost £900,000 in debt from outstanding council tax payments, from the last financial year alone.

The figures, obtained via a Freedon of Information request, also show that more than £614,000 is owed in council tax arrears from 2008-9.

A spokesman for Kingston Council said the money was still being chased and that some of it was part on the recovery process.

The money owed from last year accounts for less than 1 per cent of what it was due to collect from council tax payers.

In cases where the debt cannot be recovered, the money is written off and in 2009 more than £56,000 was written off, compared with about £147,000 the previous year.

The main reason for council tax being written off is a person absconding and leaving no forwarding address.

Other reasons include debtors being made bankrupt.

A council spokesman said: "Writing a debt off is always the last course of action and the council is extremely proactive in taking timely recovery action including bailiff action, fines and attachment of earnings and benefit.

"In all cases where someone falls into arrears we take action very promptly and our recovery policy is on the website to ensure residents are aware of this.

"We always encourage people to contact us as soon as they have difficulty in paying so that an early arrangement can be set up to reduce the build up of arrears and the stress this inevitably causes."