Damning Submissions Against Rate Rise

OUT of touch, frivolous, inept, insulting and communist are just some of the adjectives used to describe the Upper Hunter Shire Council in some of the 93 public submissions made to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Authority, which is assessing the Council’s application for a 20 percent rate rise.

The submissions are still being loaded onto the IPART website and at the time of writing, not one was in support of the rate rise.

Consistent themes in the submissions were Council being described as inept and out of touch, outrage over the recent water rates, lack of water infrastructure, the hardship of the drought and the controversial blue horse.

Several submissions stated that the overall cost of living in the Shire were becoming so high and the services so lacking that people were considering moving from the Shire.

A determination on the rate variation will be made by IPART on May 15.

Some of the highlights from the submissions include the following:

“…and council is out of touch and do not listen to the people and are trying to rip us all off!! Please don’t allow this it will kill our little town!!”

“I’ve never experienced a more inadequate council my entire life. The roads here are terrible, rates are already high, they r ripping us off with recent water bills and the entire town is planning to take them on over it. Enough is enough.”

“To even consider a rate rise is completely offensive and you should be ashamed. We have been paying above what most other shires pay in rates and we get nothing in return.i look to other shires around us and there is clear evidence of progress to the towns. Yet scone has achieved nothing in the 8 years I have lived here. People have had a gut full and are leaving the area. Then to insult us and claim we need to increase rates by a staggering 20% you blokes need your head read.”

“My family and I moved to the Upper Hunter Shire Council area in the last year as we wanted a more affordable lifestyle and home. If the rates rise significantly, there will be no reason for us to stay in the Council area and we would consider moving closer to a major town or city.”

“…and on top of our Ridiculous Water rates that all of Scone had just been slammed with by the shire , this rate increase will be the killer. I will be leaving the Shire for Greentree pastures.”

“…I do not believe they have looked at all avenues , as in approaching the State authorities for the funding. I also believe that they are incapable of responsible allocation of our rate monies, as has been illustrated recently with frivolous purchases whilst the basic services are far from being met adequately.”

“Countless time they have wasted money, the latest was the stupid blue string horse that nobody wants to see let alone bring money into scone as they claim. They could have done a lot of good in our community but no, just stupidity. ”

“….Soon no one will be able to afford to live in this town. And the bypass will turn this town into nothing. Thanks for running our home into the ground, and forcing your locals out.”

“…and now you want to drive a nail in the coffin for a lot of us.”

“…..The shire is being run in a communist fashion,with all our money being spent in Scone. Other towns in the shire get very little or nothing, even after previous rate rises…..”

“…..Why the need to slug the rate payer more when there are other avenues such as requesting funding from state government who is running in surplus or borrowing the money for works and pay it back through normal revenue raising. If they can’t balance books and raise enough revenue currently then the council should be dissolved and new elections held…..”

“…the Mayor Mr Beddgood has said in an interview previously that they did not really need the increase and they have a plan B. If they don’t really need it then why apply for it?! The vast majority of residents believe the council need to be taught better budgeting practice and to learn to prioritise their purchases. There has been a recent uproar over the purchase of a piece of art, which seems very frivolous to people who are losing stock, as they can’t afford to feed them.”

“We are already paying extraordinarily high rates for water charges (significantly higher than any other local government area, I believe). Our Council has been wasteful, from my observations. One example is recently purchasing a horse sculpture made of bailing twine for $15000!! I don’t don’t feel confident that they can spend increased rate income in a valuable way for our community. Both my husband and I travel out of town for work every day and if our rates and charges continue to increase, we will seriously consider selling and relocating closer to our places of work, or to somewhere which has more services, simply because it is becoming too expensive to live in this local government area.”

Link to submissions: IPART – Upper Hunter Special Rate Variation Application Submissions.