TRC Rates rise proposed
Proposed rates increase – Public Meeting Barraba 18 October.
The Theatre at the Playhouse Hotel was packed and overflowing – about one hundred and twenty people gathered to hear a presentation from Tamworth Regional Council outlining why our rates needed to rise by 36.3% over the next 2 years.
The Mayor, the General Manager, and other senior staff from Tamworth Regional Council were present. Janine McKenzie of Morrison Low Consultants, a Sydney based firm of local government experts, very professionally presented the case for the rates rise. Accompanied by tables, graphs and comparative charts, she outlined the case showing that Council’s essential expenditure had for some time exceeded their total income; if Council did not increase income, they would have to reduce services, or go broke. The only possible solution to increase income was to raise rates.
Not far into this presentation (it went on for about half an hour) it was clear the local residents present were getting restless and losing interest. There are probably two reasons. Firstly, the presentation was too technical, the scope too broad and long, a presentation more suitable for senior managers and business people, not local residents and ratepayers. Secondly, the presentation spoke about income and expenditure for the whole of the Tamworth Regional Council area. The Barraba area has less than 5% of TRC’s population; the presentation should have, at least in part, spoken about some of the Council improvements over the last 12 months and those services in Barraba which would be affected by lack of revenue. The one “local” topic that was discussed, road expenditure, was only for the broad northern (Barraba-Manilla) area. A very large amount was spent, but a comparison with road expenditure in Tamworth urban area per head of population is fairly meaningless, given that our area is crisscrossed with thousands of kilometres of rural roads.
After statements from the Mayor and the General Manager, the meeting was opened to questions. That part of the meeting didn’t go well; some people left part way through and when the Mayor closed the meeting many of the locals left feeling dissatisfied with important questions unanswered. Many of the questions from the floor were about matters, while important to individuals, did not come under the Council’s control, such as health services, transport, and other cost of living increases. These questions took time and weren’t able to be answered (or answered poorly) by Council Officers. That meant unfortunately other residents who had prepared very relevant questions were unable to have their questions addressed.
Canvassing the views of locals after the meeting, perhaps the general feeling of dissatisfaction could have been avoided if Councillors and senior staff had been better prepared and spent some time focussed on Barraba issues rather than all Tamworth city issues and planned Tamworth expenditure. It may be useful if some channel to keep in touch and being aware of the particular issues that are of importance to the residents of Barraba was available. Could an occasional Council Meeting be held in Barraba, where local residents could meet and question their representatives in a more formal format?
And perhaps the public meeting of 15 October, called to discuss a possible rate increase, would have been more productive if the Council presentations spent some time on key costs and services in Barraba. ………….
If you wish to make further comments to Tamworth Regional Council you can do so via;
Special Rate Variation proposal | Tamworth Regional Council (nsw.gov.au)
Letter – General Manager, PO Box 555 Tamworth NSW 2340
Email – trc@tamworth.nsw.gov.au
Phone – Customer service 02 6767 5555
Or direct to IPART - Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal https://www.ipart.nsw.gov.au