MIDCOAST Mayor Claire Pontin has issued a statement in response to social media “misinformation” that Council was considering bringing in a Special Rate Variation (SRV) in July.

“This is absolutely not the case,” she said.

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“I can assure you that if Council was planning on an SRV (we are not) it would be very public as it requires an application to IPART and IPART requires that there be extensive consultation with the community.

“We know the MidCoast community do not want an SRV, so we are not pursuing one.

“We took this decision in May 2024 when we adopted our Sustainability Action Plan.”

Mayor Pontin said however there is likely to be a small increase in rates from July to cover increases in the cost of operations.

“IPART has recommended this be 3.8 percent in MidCoast and it is commonly referred to as the rate peg,” she said.

“We are also implementing the other aspects of our Sustainability Plan by identifying efficiency savings without reducing the level of service provision in order to put more money into our roads budget next year.”