A ROW has broken out about how much money law abiding council-tax payers are having to pay to cover the cost of people who dodge their bills.

New figures suggest that dodgers are costing the average Bolton household up to an extra £40-a-year.

Statistics released by Conservative Central Office name Bolton Council as one of the worst tax collectors in Greater Manchester with residents picking up the cost.

The findings come just a week after town hall bosses announced that Bolton people faced the biggest council tax rise in five years. Bills go up by 8.5 per cent next month.

According to the Conservatives' figures, Bolton Council failed to collect 5.3 per cent of its annual council tax bill in the 12 months leading up to March, 2002, the equivalent of more than £3.75 million.

But Bolton's director of finance claims the figures portray an unfair picture of how Bolton performs on collecting council tax.

He claimed that over a number of years the council was able to collect about 99 per cent of its council tax bills.

The Conservatives say that only the councils in Salford and Manchester have a worse collection record than Bolton in the table of Greater Manchester authorities.

Bury and Tameside had the best records with just 3.1 per cent of council tax not being paid.

Bradshaw Conservative Cllr Paul Brierley, said the Labour controlled council should stop being a soft touch on those who are "milking the rest".

"It costs residents more than £40 a year to pay for those who should pay but who do not," he said.

"Yet those who feel they are above the law are still provided with the full array of council services."

Council finance director Steve Arnfield said he could not understand how the Conservatives had calculated their figures.

He claimed that each year the council budgets for a loss of around two per cent in its total council tax, which would cost the average household £22 a year. But they often did better than that.

Mr Arnfield said: "We are never able to collect all the council tax within the year. People can move house in February -- or have a big change in benefits and we give them a period to pay that.

"Different local authorities have different ways of recording their collection rates which may be why we appear to have performed poorly. It seems to me our process for collecting is as good if not better over the course of a year."

The leader of the Conservative group, Cllr Alan Rushton, said if the council was not collecting more than 95 per cent of its council tax bill in a year then something was seriously wrong.

He said: "If the council is not hitting this target, we should be asking what they are doing. We need to make every effort to get to this figure to avoid costs to Bolton residents."

CLLR ALAN RUSHTION: "We need to avoid costs to residents"