Lismore councillors will again have to debate about the Special Rate Variation (SRV) at next Tuesday’s council meeting.

Yesterday, a recission motion was lodged by Councillors Casson, Battista and Bennet. Crs Casson and Bennett were two of the councillors who voted against introducing the SRV at the extraordinary council meeting two days ago.

The recission motion means that the council must delay sending to Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) the recommendation to increase property rates by almost 25% over four years, until the issue goes back to council again.

With councillor and community opinions divided on the introduction of the controversial property rates increase, Councillor Battista said he hopes that bringing the issue back to a council meeting will give the community a chance to express their disappointment or thoughts before the meeting. 

“The recisison motion needed three signatures and Cr Casson and I went to see Cr Bennet yesterday to get him to sign it too, then I dropped it off at council,” he said.

At the last meeting, three councillors were absent and the vote to introduce the SRV was won with five councillors voting for it, and three against.

Cr Battista said he hopes all of the councillors will be at the next meeting when the issue is again discussed.

“I encourage everybody to come to council and share their views between between now and Tuesday,” he said.

“We need the community’s support behind us.

“I advise everyone to look at their rates today and the amount and work out what they will be paying in four years if this SRV goes ahead and think ‘can I afford this?’.

Cr Battista said people should question whether they believe council can really deliver on the road works which the extra revenue will fund.  

“Last year, only 27% of the work was completed that was supposed to be. So 63% of that has been deferred to this year and on top of that, next year they want four million.

“How can they manage this work and money when they can’t spend it every year on the roads like they are supposed to.

“It’s a matter of trust and the council needs to build trust with the community before going back to them with any increases.

“This is the wrong time - we are between floods and drought and fires and the economic crisis. Things are not going well.

“It’s a bit risky to go ahead and charge more to an already super charged community.

“The people mostly affected will be pensioners, single parents and people on Centrelink who won’t see more than maybe a 2-3% increase in income.

“We’ll be taking money people who can’t then afford to spend money in local businesses. 

“I ask, why did council spend $70-100K on a consultation with people and ask them what they thought about it, and when they say no, say we’ll ignore it and send the decision to IPART.

“IPART does make the final decision, but we can decide not to go ahead. 

“They have no idea what’s happening in Lismore.

“If the recission motion doesn’t pass, we can’t put another one in for three months - and the decision on the SRV must be lodged with IPART by November 30.

“Unless we reverse the vote next Tuesday, we will have a SRV.”