Southampton City Council has apologised after a ‘processing error’ led to nearly £1m in Direct Debit payments being taken early.
The council has manually returned all payments to the 2,900 people and businesses affected.
Cllr Simon Letts, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for Finance and Corporate Services, said: ‘We want to apologise once again for any inconvenience caused. We have taken steps to ensure our processes are improved to avoid this happening again.
‘We want to stress, that if you are facing immediate difficulty due to this error, please contact us.’
