Councillors have decided not to go any further with the idea of "naming and shaming" rates and council tax dodgers.

The proposal came up after the City of York Council wrote off nearly £450,000 in unpaid debts earlier this year.

Simon Wiles, head of financial services, said councillors at that time had been particularly concerned about companies being declared bankrupt and avoiding debts, then reappearing under very similar names.

He said officers had looked into the idea of "naming and shaming", but had discovered there would be several risks involved including potential action against the council if details were incorrect.

Councillors were told that they would have to decide which kinds of debtors to publish, which names should be quoted in the case of companies, what media should be used for publishing and whether there should be a minimum threshold.

Mr Wiles said: "What seemed quite a straightforward issue has become much more complicated."

Coun Ken King said: "This idea is nothing new - we all get upset when people walk away from the authority with debts. Having read this report I wouldn't want to go much further. I think this road would be too risky."

Coun Madeleine Kirk said: "If people have gone bankrupt and lose everything it could be the last straw to put their names in the press."

Coun Quentin McDonald said the idea had been to identify people who had shown unreasonable behaviour towards the council, but Coun Kirk said if they filtered people out to that extent, the council would be even more vulnerable to charges of harassment.

Coun Peter Vaughan pointed out that most of the debt recently written off - £414,000 of the £450,000 - was unpaid national non-domestic rates and the cost of writing it off was met by central government anyway, not council tax-payers. He said: "Maybe we should challenge the policy that leads us to feel that if we write it off, it doesn't effect us."

And Coun Martin Brumby said: "It does seem crazy that the council can write it off."

He agreed with other members of the Scrutiny Board to take no action on the report, but said councillors might feel differently if the council had to bear the full cost of the written-off debts.

janet.hewison@ycp.co.uk