Lyttelton rates

Press, 3 June 1983, Page 18

Lyttelton rates

Lyttelton businessmen say a planned adjustment to rate bases in the borough will hit them hard. After a meeting this week, businessmen at the port decided to seek a meeting with the borough council to discuss the rates change. The council gave notice ai its last meeting that it plans to change the base charges of its differential rating system. - Commercial ■ property owners may soon have to pay a new general rate of 210 per cent of the ordinary rate, up 60 per cent on the old figure. ; Rates for industrial properties may also rise from 115 to 150 per cent of the ordinary rate. A spokesman for the Lyttelton business community, Mr J. B. Collett, said businessmen were unhappy about the planned change in charges. The previous ratu already higher than that paid by residential property owners, had been accepted. However, if the new charges

were implemented some businessmen would have to “look seriously at their viability.” They say it is not fair for the council to expect them to pay a set percentage of the total rates collected each year, especially when business had declined and the number of property owners in the borough had increased since 1977, when differential rating was introduced.