By STEVE GRAY
THE Tenterfield Progress Association is circulating a Letter of Protest as it continues to fight huge proposed rates increases.
The Tenterfield Shire Council is due to lodge with the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) its claim for a Special Rates Variation which, if accepted, could see rates rise by more than 80 per cent over the next decade.
The council claims the increases are necessary to replace crumbling infrastructure throughout the shire.
The protest letter being circulated by the Tenterfield Progress Association not only opposes the proposed Special Rates Variation but calls for a formal investigation into “the grievous misuse of ratepayers’ funds by the so-called Tenterfield Shire Council”.
The letter urges IPART to only approve rates rises equal to inflation.
Meanwhile the Ratepayers’ Association of Tenterfield Shire has attacked the Tenterfield Progress Association, accusing it of using “ill-informed rumours or unbalanced distortions of the truth”.
Ratepayers’ Association president Peter Robinson criticised the former Tenterfield Rates and Anti-amalgamation Forum (TRAAF) for re-badging itself as the Tenterterfield Progress Association.
“Now, as expected, many people think that the repeated distortions of what are called ’facts’ concerning our shire and its council are coming from the Tenterfield Shire Progress Association, or even from the Ratepayers’ Association,” Mr Robinson said.
“If anyone is concerned by the claims of the TPA and its associates, a brief investigation of the documents on which these misleading statements are based, or a word with someone who bothers to attend council meetings, will highlight the regrettable lack of accurate knowledge displayed by some local commentators,” he said.
