COUNCILS are facing a growing ­backlash over plans to chase voters who registered for the independence referendum for unpaid council tax, as private agencies gear up to pursue other outstanding debts.

The Electoral Reform Society in ­Scotland said proposals that local authorities examine new information provided by voters in the run-up to last month's poll to track down people with outstanding bills was "irresponsible" and harmful to democracy.

Some of the largest councils ­plan to examine the register to detect fraud or trace people with unpaid bills.

Many of the voters had deliberately fallen off the roll in recent years in an attempt to avoid the tax.

Willie Sullivan, director of the Electoral Reform Society in Scotland, which campaigns to reform the UK first-past-the-post voting system and ensure every vote counts in elections, said the plans risked turning newly-registered voters off the democratic process,

The poll was hailed for the way it re-engaged voters in the political process, with an 84.6 per cent turnout.

He said: "The independence referendum saw an unprecedented level of engagement in political issues by the Scottish people. It would frankly be irresponsible to seek to hijack that enthusiasm and scare newly-engaged voters away from the democratic process. We should be doing everything we can to sustain people's passion and energy for politics."

Leading figures in the debt-recovery industry said that information added to the roll could also be used to trace those who owed money to private companies.

Potentially people could face demands for unpaid utility, phone or satellite television bills dating back several years as a result of signing up to vote.

One insider said the referendum provided a "heaven-sent opportunity" for some firms to track down those who owed money but had previously proved impossible to trace.

Insolvency expert James Lloyd, a partner at law firm Harper Macleod LLP, said the renewed interest in politics had created an "unintended benefit" for the industry.

He said: "One enduring problem that creditors face is debtors who cannot be traced. With 97 per cent of the voting public now registered to vote it will be now much easier for debt collectors to track down debtors who, whether by accident or design, did not previously appear on the electoral register."

The Scottish Conservatives and Cosla, the umbrella group for councils, has backed local authorities' right to use updated information to recover money.

North and South Lanarkshire councils yesterday became the latest to indicate they would use the register to chase debts and uncover fraud, in addition to Aberdeenshire and Edinburgh.

Fife said it would use the electoral register to detect fraud, but that any measures to use the record level of voter registration to chase historic debts would "send all the wrong messages about engagement in the electoral process".

Aberdeen City Council said yesterday that it was looking into whether it would be able to cross-reference the updated electoral roll with its debt records, although councillors have indicated they are in favour of the move.

The plan was also criticised by Gillian Martin of the Aberdeen branch of the Women for Independence organisation. Ms Martin said: "Not only is this targeting the poorest in our communities but smacks of retribution for those people daring to find a voice in our democratic process."