HOUSEHOLDERS who refuse to pay their council tax are costing the town more than £5 million worth of vital services.

That is enough money to pay for miles of road resurfacing and street lighting, delivering thousands of meals-on-wheels to the elderly, the building of two new primary schools and an end to the suffering of hundreds of people who are waiting for council house repairs.

The figure is the total amount that people should have already paid to Bolton Council.

In the last financial year the council was owed just over £60 million in council tax money.

They collected just over £56 million, leaving arrears of £4 million. This made the total outstanding -- including previous years -- at £8m, but some of this has now been retrieved leaving the debt since 1993 at £5, 207,000.

This year, the council is due to collect £65 million and has already banked £41m of this cash. This means the council is above its collection target for the year of 94.5 per cent.

But, despite this, the council is in the lowest quarter of the tables when it comes to council tax collection. Bury has announced it is at the top.

Officers blame this position on the large areas of social deprivation in the town and say when compared to similar authorities they are actually average.

The worst collection problems are in Daubhill and Deane wards, which have the highest deprivation.

Residents not paying are subject to a number of reminders before they are sent to court.

But those who ignore the reminders do so at their peril.

Last year the council took 13,500 people to court after failing to pay. The maximum sentence is 90 days in prison after a second court appearance. One person was sent to prison last year.

"There is a lot things that could get done on the infrastructure of the town for £5m. You could make a giant impact on every ward in the borough," said Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Barbara Ronson.

"People not paying are affecting the whole of the community," she said.

"Some of the money is not collectable, or is a back log of benefits and the council is doing a very good job of collecting what it can.

"But if we get this money then it might give a few more people a reason why they should pay their council tax!"

There are improvements in the pipeline for collecting council tax that will also make it easier for people with busy lives to pay. These include internet payments and telephone credit card payments.

A new computer system is on the way, stricter monitoring of those who have made arrangements to pay arrears and the chasing up of a backlog of benefit claims -- all aimed at reducing the debit on council tax.