Perth Voice Interactive

RATES bills in Stirling will go up around $45 for most property owners this year, kept at a “modest” rate by the “difficult decision” to put big infrastructure projects on hold, mayor Mark Irwin says.

One councillor, Elizabeth Re, voted against the budget, concerned that too much work was being put on hold like much-needed maintenance at ageing community buildings. 

Rates are based on a percentage of how much Landgate thinks your property would be worth rented out. That’s assessed every three years, and as this was a valuation year most people would see rates go up as their rental values likely increased.

The council lowered the rate-in-the-dollar it usually takes to compensate for the revaluation, but even so the average rates will rise about 3.24 per cent.

“In the past financial year, we made the difficult decision to put several key infrastructure projects on hold while the economy experienced intense inflation and astronomical building and construction costs,” Mr Irwin said in his budget statement.

Invest

“Putting these projects on hold and carefully managing the budget enabled us to be in a position to invest reserve funds into several critically important projects without the need for debt.”

Some projects will go ahead in stages, meaning not all of the cash has to be collected this year.

“Staged improvements at Terry Tyzack Aquatic Centre will continue and be delivered in time for summer, the Hamersley Public Golf Course pavilion and driving range will go out to tender, and works will begin on the renewal of the Recycling Centre Balcatta’s waste drop-off and transfer station.”

Cr Re voted against the budget, saying they’d left out funding for a lot of work on their old buildings that had been long-neglected.

Using one sporting club in her Doubleview ward as an example, Cr Re said, “Doubleview Bowling Club is 62 years old and it’s getting older by the minute,” and had been neglected so long in previous years that its ceiling collapsed, then they only got a “bandaid” solution.

“Some of the properties we have had issues for years and years” and the budget “is not addressing some of the issues we’ve got in some of our buildings”, she said, adding the distribution of cash between different wards didn’t seem even.

Mr Irwin tallied the budget vote, noting “all councillors voting for, except Cr Re, who is voting against the budget” and joked there would now be “only half the money to Doubleview this year”.

This prompted a glare and a headshake from Cr Re.

by DAVID BELL