Easing the Pressure on Ratepayers and Council

Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast Adam Crouch has welcomed regulatory changes introduced by the NSW Government to allow councils to provide financial relief to businesses and residents.

Amendments to local government regulations will allow Central Coast Council to delay sending out the first quarterly rates notice for 2020-21 and extend the payment deadline by one month.

The changes will also allow the council to immediately waive or reduce fees for services such as food premise inspection and footpath usage for COVID-19 affected businesses, without the need to provide 28 days public notice.

Mr Crouch said the measures were sensible and would help take some pressure off ratepayers, businesses and the council.

“The changes will provide Central Coast Council with the flexibility to adjust to rapidly shifting circumstances,” he said.

“More importantly, they also give ratepayers more time to pay their rates notices and provides some financial support to businesses suffering from reduced cash flow or forced closure by waiving or reducing fees.”

 The full range of amendments to local government regulations include:

• Allowing councils to delay sending out the first quarterly rates notice for 2020-21 and extend the payment deadline by one month;
• Enabling councils to immediately waive or reduce fees for services such as food premise inspections and footpath usage for COVID-19 affected businesses, without the need to provide 28 days public notice;
• Providing councils with a one-month extension to adopt their 2020-21 operational plans and budgets and submit their 2019-20 audited financial statements and annual reports. Councils will also have an extra month to submit their last quarterly budget review statement for 2019-20;
• Removing the requirement for documents to be made available for inspection at council offices, if the document is published on the council’s website or available electronically; and
• Removing the requirement for council notices to be advertised in newspapers and instead allow the relevant notice to be published on the council’s website.