Tamworth Regional Residents and Ratepayers Petition to Tamworth Regional Council to abandon their 36.3% Special Rate Variation

To the General Manager, Tamworth Regional Council, 474 Peel Street, Tamworth NSW 2340.

The information provided in the report by Morrison Low, (commissioned by Tamworth Regional Council) is complex and beyond the understanding of the average ratepayer.

The Morrison Low report was used to support Council's IPART application for a 36.3% rate increase and not to look at savings such as revisiting the costs of major projects.

The report also identified that the Council region is in the lowest 23% of socio-economic cohorts. This would result in the damaging impact of a large rate rise on a large proportion of lower income ratepayers, especially those on fixed incomes.

The consultation has been questionable with a lack of transparency and the briefest of consultation periods.

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WE PETITION THE COUNCIL TO ABANDON THE CURRENT PROPOSED RATE INCREASE.

We the undersigned, led by Robyn Lang of 3 Darrell Road, Calala NSW 2340, petition Tamworth Regional Council to abandon the process for a substantial Special Rate Variation of 36.3%, and ask that Council investigate every other avenue of corporate governance - including corporate inefficiencies, improving non-performing assets, and review infrastructure projects - BEFORE shifting the burden of this looming financial crisis unequally onto the ratepayers.

We request that you abandon the Tamworth Regional Council’s proposed 36.3% Special Rate Variation.