Angry residents protest at council meeting
Northern Beaches Council has asked the regulator IPART to agree to a special rates variation (SRV) of 39.6% over three years, starting at 12.1% from July 2025.
Council made the decision during an extraordinary four-hour meeting on 28 January, facing a room packed with angry residents opposing the move.
The 8-7 vote followed a two-month community consultation by council, with 6,389 responses received to four possible rate options. There was no clear result from the survey, with residents split over the choice between maintain, improve, increase or reduce council services.
Council staff had recommended option 3, to ‘improve facilities and deliver larger projects,’ with rates rising permanently each year for three years, starting with 12.1% in July – comprised of an 8.3% SRV, and the 3.8% annual rate peg. The average rise would be $673 a year ($12.89 a week), subject to the rate peg in future years which changes annually. This option was passed by council.
Hundreds of residents attended the heated meeting, many holding placards with messages such as ‘Option 1: Sack council.’ There were numerous interruptions during proceedings, not only by the gallery, but also between councillors, causing Mayor Sue Heins to call several adjournments.
Speaking to PL before the meeting, the mayor said it would be ‘financially mismanaging’ if council did not increase rates ‘in some way, shape or form.’ “We already have been cutting back in some areas quite a bit, and we’ve had so much cost shifting onto council (from the State Government). This is all about our long-term financial sustainability.”
Council is carrying a $24 million yearly deficit, with $255 million needed over the next decade for renewal of $3.9 billion in infrastructure assets alone. Without a special rates variation, which would generate an additional $56.8 million for council over three years, Mayor Heins said that services would need to be cut, and ‘virtually every plan,’ including the redevelopment of the Manly SLSC and the Brookvale Plan, would have to be put on hold.
While most of the mayor’s Your Northern Beaches Independent Team voted for the rate rise, one voted against, joining three out of four Greens, one Liberal and two Independents.
IPART will soon conduct a community consultation before making a decision around May about the rate rise. Dozens of other NSW councils have applied for and received approval for SRVs over the last two years.