FREMANTLE city council has dropped plans to double the rates of landlords with empty shops.

Mayor Brad Pettitt announced the plan at the start of the year (“Double rates for greedy landlords”, Herald, January 5, 2013), saying he was tired of landlords setting extortionate rates which crippled traders and led to empty shops. He’d wanted the scheme in place by the end of the year. But Dr Pettitt said this week the council’s lawyers told them to forget it—they could only apply it to non-lettable buildings and vacant lots.

The council will now consider rates discounts for shops filled after being empty more than a year, a scheme Dr Pettitt describes as “more carrot rather than stick”.

“This proposal will be considered by council during the 2014/15 budget deliberations,” the council’s corporate director Glen Dougal told the Herald.

by STEVE GRANT