Hello, I'd be grateful for any advice please. I've received a letter out of the blue from a company called Bristow & Sutor, who say I owe Recycled Council Tax on a property I left 18 months ago. I gave the local council my forwarding address & they also had my email address. I had this account with a payment arrangement set up directly with the council. The then current bill had been passed to a collection company. I was ill & unable to work & was self employed. I asked the council if i could pay reduced amounts but they just passed everything to the bailiffs. The amounts with the bailiffs have been completely paid off. This letter says I owe the council £220.21 & Bristow & Sutor have added on £310, total bill now £530.21, now with enforcement. I've looked back through my records & on the last call to an advisor the outstanding balance was £55 left to pay. I must have forgotten all about it & I received no further correspondence. I've managed to get the account suspended for 14 days while I try to contact the council. However they take 10 days to reply. I've been emailing since the 11th January. I had a response which confirmed all outstanding bills were paid in full with the bailiff company. And that this was recycled council tax. I emailed back to say the outstanding balance was £55 & my bank statements showed payments of £260 leaving a balance of £57, I copied the bank statement in the email too. I then got a reply from another person, junior officer, who then contradicted everything the first revenues officer told me. I've emailed again, but still waiting for a reply. I've emailed Bristow & Sutor & they've only replied this morning to say I have to make an arrangement to pay & if there is any amendment to the bill, the council will instruct them. I'm expected to blindly pay for something I have no idea why I owe it. I'm being ignored by the council, their responses are just not good enough. You just can't get a straight answer but I think it's more no one has any authority. Why is it acceptable for Bristow & Sutor to put on an additional £310!! But I'm very worried this is an enforcement agency, don't want any visits. I'm also worried as I can't pay very much a week at the moment. I don't know what to do. Does any one have any suggestions please? Thank you

Seems stores are now going to be charging us for plastic carrier bags. Whilst I have no problem paying for these, I object strongly when these bags are plastered with the logos of the stores. IMHO, they should be paying ME to do their advertising. Anyway.. having a fair old stock of plastic bags anyway, I have knitted/crocheted my own bags out of these. They are far stronger and none of the logos show There are plenty of knitting patterns available if you google them, but these two links have proved to be useful. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-450744/Knit-shopping-bag.html http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/knitting-with-plastic-bags/ And I have attached a pdf for a crocheted bag. [ATTACH=CONFIG]46859[/ATTACH]