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Angry residents hold meeting over rate hike

Staff ReporterThe Advocate

The Shire adopted its 2014-15 budget on July 16, with the rate hike blamed on a revaluation of Gross Rental Values.

A revaluation of GRVs is conducted every five years and a new value was formed in August last year, which came into effect this July.

Shire of Chittering chief executive Gary Tuffin said the council took steps to reduce the impact of the increase by cutting the rate in the dollar on GRV properties from 12.2254 to 11.4878, a decrease of 6.4 per cent.

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‘With GRV residential properties increasing in value by an average of over 18 per cent, the council have tried to minimise the impact on ratepayers by reducing the GRV rate in the dollar,’ he said.

As the price of the rental homes increases, so do rates to individual properties.

Ratepayer Steve Vallance, who organised the ratepayer meeting, said his rates went up 25 per cent due to a rubbish collection service he says few people want.

‘If you wanted your rubbish collected before, there was a local bloke who was doing it for pretty much the same price as the Shire are doing it for now,’ he said.

‘There are a lot of people who only have one or two bin loads a month. Now they’re going to have to have two bins a week and pay for it even though they’re not going to use it.’