Clarence Valley Council is preparing to increase farmland, residential and business property rates across much of the local government area, but is quarantining Grafton and South Grafton CBD businesses from these increases for the next four years.
Apparently this particular council is pleading income poverty.
Well if this little tale of the economic management of just one of this council’s own Grafton properties is anything to go by, is it any wonder?
The Daily Examiner 11 May 2012:
TENDERS for Grafton's art gallery cafe closed earlier this week without a single expression of interest being received by Clarence Valley Council.
Council's manager of assets George Kriflik said that the only option would be to readvertise.
The art gallery cafe has been the home to Georgie's Cafe for the past 11 years and has been the subject of lengthy negotiations due to a proposed rate increase by council.
Mr Kriflik said that due to a confidentiality agreement between the parties involved, he was not able to disclose many of the details of the lease or negotiations, but he did confirm the previously quoted figure of a 40 per cent rent increase was an error (The Daily Examiner, April 17), with the original increase being closer to 33 per cent.
"After a re-valuation the rate was reduced to a 14.5 per cent increase," Mr Kriflik said.
However, this too was declined by the lessors and resulted in the current cafe operators deciding to move on.
Suddenly at the end of June 2012 the council has vacant commercial space where it previously had an income which it never denied represented full market value. Still it somewhat optimistically expected The loss of income from the current lessee will be offset by the new lessee under a new lease arrangement [Clarence Valley Council Ordinary Meeting 17 April 2012, Minutes].
By July 2012 Clarence Valley Council did indeed have a new tenant at what was then rumoured to be a bargain basement priced three year lease with renewal options having only CPI rent increases attached - which saw it losing income and the restaurant turning into a daytime only café with limited opening hours.
However, in June 2013 that tenant also departed and was replace by Cr. Jeremy Challacombe’s son Murray and his daughter-in-law who took over the bargain basement lease to run the gallery café.
Three tenants in just under a year and how much money is council down? Possibly those valley residents facing yet another rate hike will never know, but mention of $20,000 per annum is being tossed around some dinner tables.
Few Lower Clarence ratepayers are impressed with the Grafton-centric attitude of council as it is and this is merely the icing on a huge dissatisfaction cake.
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