Wanted to add - you're probably going to get further if you speak to someone in charge too. We paid for our dogs one day late (because the due date was a Sunday so we paid Monday morning) and the woman actually had a go at DH and said she wasn't going to process it, couldn't we read the date? He bit back (pardon the pun) and said that our dog wasn't blue either (she's black and grey and they have her listed as being blue) and it seemed there was a mistake all round, so she shut up and processed it. Whenever we have any issue with the council, we go high up and seem to get some answers.