Bristol City Council said its vital services are starved of over £6m every year because around 6,500 households fail to pay their council tax.

But now the authority has pledged to take action against those who evade the tax.

It hopes to persuade more people to pay up with a hard-hitting ad campaign warning dodgers of the risks they are taking.

Ad campaign

The council said the missing £6m would have been enough to pay for:

• Two new primary schools

• A year of residential care for 380 older people

• Five years of secondary education for 400 children

• A year of home care for 1,900 older or disabled people

• Doubling the level of highways maintenance across the city.

The campaign, which starts on Monday and runs for three weeks, warns deliberate non-payers they face having their car, TV or other household items seized by bailiffs - or even being sent to jail.

Non-payment of council tax costs millions each year

The message is aimed at people who ignore the council's reminder letters and default on arrangements that have been made to enable them to pay what they owe in instalments.

Councillor John Bees, executive member for central support services, said: "We want to be fair and help those people who have a genuine difficulty in paying.

"However, we also need to be fair to the vast majority of people from all walks of life who pay on time and contribute towards the funding of vital local services."

He added: "We can't allow people to default on their payments time and time again and we will use our legal powers to recover the debt if we need to.

"The adverts are hard hitting and we hope they get the message across."