|
Mayor of Tweed Chris Cherry today welcomed moves by the NSW Government to provide additional financial relief to residents impacted by the recent flood.
On Friday, the NSW Government announced ratepayers whose properties were damaged by the February-March floods would be entitled to have their Council rates waived. This would apply to all Tweed ratepayers who had made a successful claim through Service NSW, or whose property has been assessed as damaged.
The announcement comes on top of the financial relief already offered to residents and businesses by Tweed Shire Council back in April.
“This additional financial support for residents impacted by the devastating flood will be really welcomed by residents,” Cr Cherry said.
“As a Council, we have done everything within our jurisdiction to offer financial relief to our ratepayers. This support from the State Government means residents who are struggling to pay for the rebuild and recovery of their homes and businesses will not have to worry when their next rates bill arrives.
“At the same time, it means Council is able to continue to provide the same quality services we do to support our community, on top of the huge repair job before us following the flood.”
The waiver applies to the 2022/23 general rates bill, due to be issued to residents, businesses and farm properties from July 2022.
The relief is part of a $120 million Local Council Support Package announced by the NSW Government on Friday 3 June 2022.
In a media release outlining the plan, Minister for Emergency Services, Resilience and Flood Recovery Steph Cooke said the NSW Government would contact eligible ratepayers in the affected LGAs (including Tweed Shire) to inform them it would pay their rates for the next year on their behalf.
“The funding will be provided through Service NSW and the payments will be made directly to councils to ensure eligible ratepayers receive the relief automatically, without having to worry about red tape,” Ms Cooke said.
Tweed Shire Council has been strongly advocating for the NSW Government to immediately expand the Voluntary House Purchase and Voluntary House Raising schemes, to provide answers for residents whose homes were damaged during the flood.
This is one of 15 recommendations submitted to the NSW Independent Flood Inquiry 2022, on how to better address flooding situations in the future.
A copy of Council’s full Flood Inquiry submission is published on the Flood Recovery Dashboard, accessed via a tab on Council’s webpage.
|