FREMANTLE residents experiencing financial hardship will no longer be slugged with extra charges for paying their rates by instalments.
The City of Fremantle has amended its hardship policy so eligible ratepayers will no longer pay interest or penalty charges when paying rates over time, a move Mayor Ben Lawver said recognised the reality facing many households.
“If you previously applied for that, you still would pay the penalties for doing your payments in instalments, and also the interest, and that was really tough on some folks,” Mr Lawver said.
“We’re proposing that we amend that hardship policy, so if you qualify for that, then your rates are just your rates.
“We’re not going to tack on interest, we’re not going to add the penalty payments, because those are the folks that probably can least afford that extra bit.”
• Fremantle mayor Ben Lawver
The change, endorsed at a special council meeting last week, will now form part of the city’s adopted budget.
Asked whether the move reflected his election pledge to abolish instalment charges more broadly, Mr Lawver described it as “a step in the right direction”.
“This is a step that the council was comfortable taking as a whole, so I’m comfortable taking this step,” he said.
“It will help the people that need it the most.”
The hardship policy has also been amended to clarify who qualifies for assistance.
The budget itself represents a shift in the way the city plans major capital works, with council moving away from announcing long lists of projects it cannot realistically deliver within a year.
“Previously we would announce, say $20 million worth of capital works projects, but we could only deliver $10 million, and so then the other $10 million were the projects where people in the community would be like, ‘well, what happened to those?’,” Mr Lawver said.
“What we’re doing this year is we’re changing the way that we approach that, where we take a year to plan and scope up a project and get it sorted and then fund it in a second year.
“So when we say we’re going to do something, we’ll actually be able to do it.”
He said the new approach would also ease pressure on city staff and be more transparent.
The city has budgeted for an average 5.5 per cent increase in rate revenue, although the effect on individual households will vary because this year is a Gross Rental Value revaluation year. The city says the increase has been kept broadly in line with inflation while maintaining investment in infrastructure and reserves.
Cr Lawver said many property owners would notice different increases despite the lower rate in the dollar.
“The rate on the dollar for residential properties is actually going down, so it’d be lower, but because house values have gone up – it’s gone up 40 per cent for some people, so even with a lower rate on the dollar, they will be paying more.
“It will be very individualised per property.
“It’s one of those things that is out of our control as a council. We don’t do the valuations.”
Asked whether the city’s new two-year delivery model left it vulnerable to future construction cost increases, Cr Lawver acknowledged there were risks.
“We can’t predict the future, but we’re shooting for a CPI increase…with a little cushion on there.
“Who knows what’s happening in Iran right now with the Strait of Hormuz.”
Among the larger capital works allocations are $4.7 million for Hilton Park Master Plan projects, $4.1 million for roads and road safety, $1.55 million for Samson Park Master Plan projects, $600,000 for pedestrian crossings at the Douro Road-South Terrace roundabout, $300,000 for drainage works at Fremantle Town Hall, $250,000 for forward works on the South Beach dog beach toilets and $200,000 for new public toilets at Pioneer Park.
“There’s a lot,” Cr Lawver said.
“It’s a bit like the Tom Edwards water fountain in Walyalup Koort; that’s not working. So, trying to get some of those little things up and running.”
by STEVE GRANT