SWINDON Council picked up nearly an extra £1m last year by getting more council tax bills paid.

On top of that, the council collected £2.4m in council tax arrears from earlier years and another £360,000 in rent collected from late paying council tenants.

Council resources cabinet member Nick Martin said the money came from using bailiffs and chasing bad debts harder.

He said the £2.4m collected from council tax arrears was £1m more than previous years.

And that collecting the money meant the council would have more to spend on services.

He defended the use of bailiffs to recoup the debts.

"Bailiffs are the last point of call," he said.

"The value of people's furniture is rather less than they paid for it.

"The value of bailiffs or the debt collection agency contacting people is that it gets them to agree to a payment plan. Some people are in denial."

He said the £360,000 in housing rent arrears would be spent improving council houses.

The rest of the money would go to the general budget to be decided by the council.

In the 2005-06 financial year, Swindon Council collected 97.1 per cent of all council tax owed to it, up from 95.4 per cent in 2004-05.

In the table of 27 similar unitary authorities, Swindon has moved from 21st place to ninth best tax collector.

At the same time, the amount of business tax collected rose from 99.3 per cent to 99.6 per cent.

Labour group leader Kevin Small said he had concerns about the council using bailiffs after receiving complaints in the past.

"As a council we have a duty to where possible recover our money," he said.

"I have concerns about the use of bailiffs. While sometimes it's a legitimate tool in debt recovery, in most situations there are better alternatives."

Almost £3m of council tax went unpaid in Swindon in 2004-05, with a total of 3,679 households dodging their payments.

In total £65.97m was collected from the Swindon's 79,991 households. This left a shortfall of £2.97m.