Mornington Peninsula $900 Green Wedge levy labelled as ‘cash grab’
Hundreds of people on the Mornington Peninsula have been slapped with a huge council levy simply because of where their property is. And angry homeowners have hit out at the “cash grab”, saying “we largely fend for ourselves”.
South East
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About 800 Mornington Peninsula homeowners have been slapped with a new $900 levy for living on the Green Wedge.
The council has added a “rural living” rate to the properties — a 17-20 per cent rise on their previous rates bill.
Mornington Peninsula Shire Council chief financial officer Bulent Oz said the levy was brought in because people who lived in the area who weren’t growers, did not provide habitat area or maintain landscape values gained “greater value than the general ratepayer from the programs and policies which protect the Green Wedge”.
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Robert Clark, who has lived in Red Hill South for seven years, slammed the extra levy — which he estimated would affect about 800 peninsula properties — as a “cash grab by stealth”.
He said the shire appeared to consider residents living on smaller Green Wedge properties as “parasites”.
“It’s true, smaller properties don’t incur the same costs but they’re not revenue-producing, either,” Mr Clark said.
“Those properties with higher costs are producing revenue so it’s an absurd statement.”
Mr Clark said some people had lived in the area for 30 years and looked after their properties “meticulously”.
He said the properties put less strain on council finances as they were not connected to sewage or town water.
“We largely fend for ourselves here. We’re not a big drain on the public purse. If I have water or sewage problems, I have to pay and fix those myself,” he said.
“Now they’ve been slugged an extra $900 in rates. It’s completely inequitable and unjust.”
Mr Clark slammed the council for the “underhanded” way it imposed the new levy.
“We knew nothing of it until rates notice came in,” he said.
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“It wouldn’t have been hard for the council to directly communicate with the 800 properties affected.”
Mr Oz said the council needed to determine an appropriate way to distribute the “rate burden” each year.
He said the council, in its 2019/20 Budget, found properties less than 2ha in the Green Wedge were unlikely to incur the same land management costs as owners of larger lots.