PLANS to stop making door-to-door rent collections could finally be approved by councillors.

Leading councillors at Derwentside District Council agreed in principle to cut the service to the 2,700 council house tenants who used the service last year, after hearing that the rent men feared for their safety.

The councillors have twice asked for further reports from officers before making their final decision, after hearing that a "vast majority" of mainly older tenants who use the service would like to keep the collections.

The cabinet looks like agreeing to the proposal after the Consett branch of the Pensioners Rights Campaign came out in favour of axing the service, in the interests of safety. The council would employ the two rent collectors elsewhere.

Council officers have recommended that Post Office, paypoint and direct debit payments be offered as alternative methods of payments, after surveying the 2,709 residents who would be affected by the change.

After receiving 2,616 survey form replies, it emerged that 56 per cent of respondents wanted to pay at the Post Office. The change to the Post Office method of payment would save the council £31,000 a year.

In a report to the council, head of housing management Peter Chaffer said that the vast majority of tenants were against the withdrawal of the service, but that many realised the dangers to the rent collectors. Cabinet members will discuss the issue on Monday, at Consett Civic Centre.