A Luton tax payer was rather baffled when his latest council bill came all the way from Staffordshire.

Paul Rodell, of Riverside Road, said an official looking windowed envelope popped through his mail box on Monday morning all the way from Leek.

"I thought: 'Who would be writing to me from there?' only to find out it was my council tax account," he said.

"Why is it necessary for council tax accounts to be posted by Royal Mail first class from Leek in Staffordshire?"

Mr Rodell, who works in administration, said he understood costs were often a factor in out-sourcing to far off towns, counties and countries but he saw this as a strange one to be contracted away from Luton.

"It just seems a shame. They used to have their own printing department and the council goes out of its way to provide local trucks for its work. Surely they don't need to use Leek," he added.

A Luton Borough Council spokesman said the local authority had a contract with Pitney Bowes to print and mail out the borough's Council Tax bills from a printing plant in Leek.

"The current bills were sent first class in order to meet deadlines following production problems," he said.

"This was at no extra cost to Luton Borough Council."