Compulsory Direct Debits? Shurely etc

Article on Indymedia today about somewhat dodgy wording in a letter from the NCC Council Tax goons.

It seems that they may have let their enthusiasm for direct debits run away with them, the letter says;

"In order to pay next year's Council Tax and make it as easy as possible you need to pay by Direct Debit."

You could be forgiven for taking this to mean that its compulsory to pay your Council Tax by Direct Debit, not least because thats what it actually says. Yet of course this isn't the case at all.

To be fair there are legitimate reasons for the Council to encourage direct debit payments, on the other hand there are legitimate reasons for people being unhappy with the direct debit system. For instance the Indymedia poster mentions Virgin Media...

But its wrong to give the false impression that something is compulsory when it isn't. There are laws telling us what we must do and laws that tell us what we can do and NCC shouldn't get them mixed up.