Chamber calls for 5% reduction in Athlone rates
by Karen Downey Updated: Wednesday, 9th November, 2011 5:30pm
But councillors unsure if reduction would significantly benefit businesses
Athlone Chamber of Commerce this week called on Athlone Town Council to reduce rates for businesses in the town by 5% in its budget for next year.
But the suggestion, made by Chamber President Michael O'Brien, at Monday's November meeting of the council did not get the reception from councillors that the Chamber had hoped.
Mr O'Brien was at the meeting along with Chamber CEO Siobhan Bigley and Vice President John McGrath to discuss the Chamber's plans for a vacancy strategy for the centre of town.
After making a presentation to the councillors on the Chamber's plans for vacant premises in the town, which includes allowing other businesses to display products in the windows of vacant premises, art displays and standardised posters advertising Athlone, Mr O'Brien called for a 5% reduction in rates for 2012.
He said it had been a tough two and a half years for businesses, which had to cut their costs, salaries and jobs and reduce their prices and it would be disingenuous of the council not to reduce the rates.
"Just to leave the rates as they are is not acceptable," he said.
Chamber Vice President John McGrath said he hadn't been planning to say anything at the meeting but felt some background was needed on the Chamber's call for the 5% rates reduction.
He said a 5% rates reduction would lead to a reduction in the council's budget of 2 to 2.5% and while it was difficult to take items out of expenditure, he had been able to find €80,000 that could be cut. Mr McGrath said other areas such as light and heat weren't looked at.
He also said there were a number of projects that money had been set aside for in the 2011 budget where works hadn't started on site and asked if the councillors could explain this so that they could explain it to the Chamber members.
Mr McGrath added that the council's rates write off was about 20%, which he said was quite high and said he didn't think it was all down to businesses closing.
Mayor Alan Shaw. He asked if an individual was to look at a Chamber member's accounts how would the 5% rates reduction impact on the business and its viability in the future.
Mr O'Brien said with rates it depended on the size of the business, but said every little helped and while a 5 to 10% cut might not make a huge difference, it was a start and it was a token.
"In the ideal world you'd cut them by 20% or 30% but that's not going to happen," he added.
Cllr Kieran Molloy (FF) thanked the Chamber for the presentation. He said if the councillors could save that money they would. He said he understood the problems businesses had with rates, but said when you looked at Athlone's rates they weren't half of what other towns had.
"The council has to make the town attractive to bring in business. Every euro of expenditure will be gone through with a fine tooth comb at the two meetings we have," said Cllr Molloy.
In relation to the empty premises strategy he asked why the Chamber was only concentrating on Church Street and not other areas like Irishtown or Pearse Street.
Cllr Sheila Buckley Byrne (Ind) said she had spoken about vacant premises at the previous council meeting and asked the Chamber what the next step was in implementing the strategy.
She added that Cllr McFadden had suggested something similar to the Chamber in that the premises could be used by people to show their produce, particularly by local craftspeople.
Cllr Aengus O'Rourke (FF) said it was very important that this presentation had taken place and said given the very difficult economic climate he felt a new responsibility fell on the council and the Chamber, saying the business community looked to both organisations for responsibility.
"I think we need to do more. I propose we set up a working group with members of both, we meet every eight weeks and put together an action plan to tackle the issues facing businesses," he said.
He added that in terms of rates he had never been one to buy into cutting rates as a token, but said it was more about getting value for rates and he took on board the comments regarding some capital projects in the town.
Cllr Kevin 'Boxer' Moran said he wasn't going to discuss rates as he hadn't seen the budget yet. He said he was disappointed that the Chamber had come to the council with the proposal about shops when more needed to be put into weekend breaks and advertising the attractions the town has.
Cllr Mark Cooney (FG) said he agreed with Cllr O'Rourke's suggestion that there needed to be better co-operation and understanding between both organisations.
"We've talked about rates before. A 5% reduction will have a huge impact on the council. If a business has a €9,000 rates bill and there is a reduction of 5% it would mean a saving of €450 over a year. That's not going to make or break a business but it will have a huge impact on the council."
Mr O'Brien said that in terms of rates, the Chamber understood there was a lot of work going on in the town, but he said he was there to represent the members and rates was something that they continually talked about.
Cllr Gabrielle McFadden said it was important that people realised that there were several councillors who were ratepayers themselves and the councillors understood how hard it was. She said in relation to the vacant premises strategy, she felt standardised posters only advertised the fact that premises were empty so she felt it would be better to allow other businesses to use the space to advertise.
Director of Services for Athlone Barry Kehoe said the executive was under ongoing pressure to run efficiently with Government funding being cut.
He said much of the money the council had was seed capital that was used to leverage money from Government for projects, which he said businesses would understand.
