Aontú will not support Rates rise

Ballyarnett councillor, Emmet Doyle (Aontú), said his party will not vote for a rates increase for Derry City and Strabane District Council.

Cllr Doyle said Aontú had taken the decision "as a result of the cost of living crisis and because ratepayers are being left to carry the can for Stormont departments".

Cllr Doyle added: "Aontú will not vote for a rates increase in the City and District in the coming weeks. Not only is it unconscionable to be taking a choice to add yet another burden on ratepayers who contact us regularly about how they are struggling with the cost of living crisis, but because ratepayers are also paying for the failure of Stormont departments.

"The system of local government funding and how Belfast-centric Stormont departments actually carry out their statutory responsibilities has to radically change or our ratepayers are going to continue to pay over the odds for basic services.

"A ‘bait and switch’ tactic of offering Councils funded programmes that last a number of years and then withdrawing funding half way through so ratepayers are forced to pick up the tab is becoming more prevalent.

"We are asking ratepayers to fund skills development for example, which is essential in the District, yet this is a core responsibility of the Economy Department in Belfast."

Cllr Doyle said that a specific example was how Road Service carry out their duties.

He said: "They are responsible for cutting grass on verges alongside roads - and in Derry they do that. However, they refuse to carry out the same service in our Districts massive rural area meaning ratepayers pick up the tab which is arbitrarily applied by the Department. It may sound like small fry but ratepayers pay many thousands of points a year for it. Would that happen in North Down?

"A Rate Support a grant was created years ago to top up the income to poorer and more rural Councils. One might assume that has increased over the years and that support - needed more than ever now - would be untouchable. Not so. It has been cut and chipped away at so much that it is barely a fraction of what it was. That means more burden for ratepayers.

"Herein lies the fundamental concern I have - we as a Council could simply stop stepping in, but if we do that it won’t be Stormont civil servants that suffer, it will be our own people. Until that fundamental issue is addressed, rates here will continue to have a feature that from what Aontú can see, happens in few if any other District.”