{"id":213612,"date":"2018-07-13T20:44:15","date_gmt":"2018-07-13T10:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=213612"},"modified":"2020-07-30T13:40:40","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T03:40:40","slug":"angry-ratepayers-promised-road-fix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/07\/13\/angry-ratepayers-promised-road-fix\/","title":{"rendered":"Angry Ratepayers Promised Road Fix"},"content":{"rendered":"
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About 65 people plus Councillors and Council staff attended the public meeting in Durong Hall on Thursday night to discuss this year’s rate rise and the condition of local roads<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

July 13, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

All the South Burnett’s dirt roads will “see a grader”\u00a0within 12 to 18 months, about 65 angry ratepayers were promised at a public meeting held at Durong Hall on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The meeting, which South Burnett councillors were invited to attend, following a preliminary gathering at the hall on Saturday night organised by local farmers who were shocked to learn their rates were about to rise steeply.<\/p>\n

Annual rises of up to 17.5 per cent were quoted from the floor, compared with the 5 to 6 per cent figure for farmers given to the media by Council on Budget day (June 25).<\/p>\n

South Burnett Mayor Keith Campbell was accompanied to the meeting by Deputy Mayor Kathy Duff and councillors Ros Heit, Roz Frohloff, Gavin Jones and Danita Potter. Cr Terry Fleischfresser was an apology.<\/p>\n

Also in attendance were the Council’s General Manager Finance, Lester Schumacher, and recently appointed General Manager Infrastructure, Aaron Meehan.<\/p>\n

Residents were angry they had no forewarning about a steep rate increase and no prior consultation or explanation, something which local resident Lorna Wieland said was not “best practice” according to Department of Local Government guidelines:<\/p>\n

“Any significant increases in rates should be reasonable and attributed to transparent changes\u00a0to either the services or facilities provided to land or to changed circumstances of the land.\u00a0The department considers it best practice for local governments proposing significant increases in\u00a0rates to inform and consult with ratepayers before the rates notices are issued.”\u00a0<\/em>
\n[Ref. Guideline on equity and fairness in\u00a0rating for Queensland local\u00a0governments<\/a><\/strong> (267kb PDF) ]<\/p>\n

They also expressed concerns the extra money raised from the rates hike could disappear into Council’s coffers for other projects – such as the proposed Kingaroy CBD beautification scheme – rather than be spent on rural roads.<\/p>\n

Mayor Campbell attempted to hose down concerns the rural ratepayers were being “discriminated against” in the Council Budget.<\/p>\n

He said there were 2293 rural primary producers in the South Burnett, who paid about $6.6 million in rates.<\/p>\n

It comparison, there were about 14,000 ratepayers in the towns and villages who paid about $21-22 million.<\/p>\n

“The road levy was introduced to get the roads back into some level of semblance of order after the 2012 floods,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And probably in reality, the roads weren’t up to scratch even at that point in time.<\/p>\n

“Under the old scheme that was prevailing, rural producers were contributing around about $460,000 towards the road levy.<\/p>\n

“Urban and village ratepayers were contributing about $2.9 million to the road levy.”<\/p>\n

He said about 84 per cent of the roads the SBRC looked after were rural roads, and a large proportion of those were dirt.<\/p>\n

“The other 16 per cent are tied up in towns and villages,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said now the road levy had been rolled into general rates, it was valuation-based rather than a fixed $200-per-year.<\/p>\n

Mayor Campbell said under this arrangement, Council would collect about an extra $700,000 for roads, but not all of that would come from rural ratepayers.<\/p>\n

He supplied some half-yearly figures:<\/strong><\/p>\n