A Torbay Council spokesperson said: “First of all we would like to apologise to those residents for any upset or inconvenience that was caused following receiving a final notice. We will be carrying out an internal investigation into how this happened and do our upmost to ensure this doesn’t happen again. In total 2,500 final notices were issued to households across Torbay. Just over 1,900 of these were for accounts where payments had been made late and who have previously received a first reminder. A second reminder should have been sent, not a final notice. We have today written to all those residents affected apologising for this mix up along with an amended bill which resets their payment plan and cancels the final notice.”