CASH-STRAPPED council bosses were forced to wipe off more than £4.5m of debt in three years, new figures reveal.
A Freedom of Information request made by the Chronicle shows large sums owed to the public purse had to be written off by town hall chiefs between the 2013/14 and 2015/16 financial years.
The money owed to the council included almost £2m in unpaid council tax and more than £1.7m in business rates.
In addition to this more than £679k in council house rent arrears had to written off and a further £112,954 in commercial rents and other debts.
The council said writing off unrecoverable debts is used as a last resort option when all other methods of collection have been exhausted. It said arrears that are written off can be and are resurrected, should at some point the person be traced or they subsequently seek rehousing.
Read more in this weeks Barnsley Chronicle
