Northern Beaches Council: Votes to slug ratepayers with 25pc rate hike
Residents have been slugged with a 25pc rate hike after a rowdy Sydney council meeting and a divisive local protest campaign. Here’s the latest.
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Northern Beaches Council has voted to slug residents with a 25pc rates rise to bolster its flagging budget.
Councillors voted 11-4 in favour of the hike that will boost its budget by $50m over the next two years.
The massive rate hike, passed at a Tuesday night council meeting, will leave an average ratepayer $168 out of pocket next financial year.
About 75 angry locals had protested outside the Dee Why council chambers ahead of the meeting in a last-ditch effort to persuade councillors to reject the rise.
A residents’ group, Northern Beaches Peoples Voice, had been fighting the move, arguing that many locals were already battling through the cost of living crisis.
Tuesday’s vote comes six months after about 200 people protested before the January council meeting where a motion was passed — eight votes to seven — to seek permission to hike rates by 40 per cent over the next three years.
The IPART (Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal) rejected that bid, but did allow the council a vote to impose a 25pc increase over the next two years.
The council argued it needed the extra income from the “special rate variation” to ensure its long term financial sustainability and tackle an infrastructure and maintenance backlog.
It also wanted money to manage an increasing natural disasters such as flooding; improve current services and; enable the go-ahead for larger capital works, like the refurbishment of the Warringah Aquatic Centre.
If the extra income was not available, there could be a “critical failure” of the area’s stormwater network, for example, the meeting heard.
But critics of the rise say the council already has money in the bank to balance its budget and that it can make cutbacks by reducing non-essential services such as community events, slashing the number of senior managers and selling unused council property.
Cr De Luca, who has been leading the community push back against the rates hike, said that the council was refusing to make substantial internal savings.
He pointed out that it was still handing out $25.8m in salaries of 111 executives, including $570,000 for the CEO, and losing millions of dollars on non-core council activities such as operating the Glen St Theatre and Manly Art Gallery.
“The administration (of the council) is arrogant and out of touch with the needs of our community,” Cr De Luca said.
He called for an independent financial controller to be appointed by Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig.
“Unless the council pulls in its belt, the community will have no choice but to call for the council … to be dismissed.”
Stuart Gold, founder of the Northern Beaches Peoples Voice, told the council meeting, prior to the vote, that councillors must reject the rise and urged them to focus on providing core services, such as repairing potholes.
“I ask that there be no rate hike until there is an independent audit of internal (council) spending,” he said.
Your Northern Beaches Independent councillor Nicholas Beaugeard backed the motion, describing it as a was big decision “with long term consequences”.
His colleague, Sarah Grattan, called for a yes vote while pointing out that councillors had been the targets of verbal bullying and harassment from community members opposed to the rise.
“Let’s be honest, it’s not democracy, it’s thuggery,” she said.
Cr Rowie Dillon said she had also been targeted in a concerted harassment campaign with threats her bakery business would be boycotted. She said it had taken a physical and emotional toll on her.
IPART stated last month that the 25.2 per cent increase was “sufficient for the council to achieve financial sustainability and still accrue surpluses to fund expansions in environmental and natural disaster risk reduction programs and long-term investments in major infrastructure renewals”.
Mayor Sue Heins said the decision recognised the pressures on council’s budget.
“IPART has acknowledged the critical need to address the shortfall in council’s budget caused by high inflation and increasing costs,” Ms Heins said.
“Council now has the ability to confidently move forward and continue to repair and renew roads, footpaths, rock pools, stormwater infrastructure and other community facilities.”
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Originally published as Northern Beaches Council: Votes to slug ratepayers with 25pc rate hike
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