Griffith City Council unveils rates estimator amid community consultation sessions

The community have until August 31 to attend sessions and have their say before council makes a final decision in October as to whether to apply to IPART for approval to raise ordinary rates.

The increase would be retained permanently in Council's rate base.

Griffith mayor Doug Curran says the objective of the estimator is to provide clarity around what the proposed SRV would mean for them.

"This is an effort to overcome a lot of circulating misinformation," Cr Curran said.

"The idea around the estimator is to provide the community a much more accurate picture of what rates will increase by. We're more than happy to discuss this with residents and the consultation sessions if it comes up but this is to provide clarity, not more queries.

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"We don't know what the increase in sewer, water and the like will be because this is calculated on a yearly basis. By the time we do know what the increase is, the rate assessment is on its way."

Cr Curran is also urging residents to attend consultation sessions over the next month.

"These are designed to provide clarity. If people have further questions or further comments, we will take those on board," he said.

"The aim with these is to also take out some of the ambiguity around outlandish figures being mentioned on various platforms. We want the community to be as informed as possible because that's the only way this process will be successful.

"Personally, I've found the consultations extremely positive. When people take the time to listen to the situation that not only council finds itself in but NSW Local Government, the overwhelming sentiment to me has been the community understands the situation, are not overly happy about it but doesn't want to see services cut or council go broke," Cr Curran said.

Council's estimator can be found here.

Ratepayers are being urged to attend upcoming SRV community consultation sessions at 7pm on August 1 at the Hanwood Catholic Club and 10am on August 4 at Griffith Central.

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