Council set to appeal rate rise
A town council is set to appeal after its rates bill for its main car park rsse by more than £27,000.
The government has set new non domestic rateable values for business properties, including car parks.
The rateable value of Central car park in Oswestry has almost doubled, which has seen the town council landed with a rates bill of £27,000 more than last year.
At this weeks town council meeting town clerk, David Preston said specialist advisers have been brought in by the council to look at appealing the decision.
Central car park is the largest in Oswestry, one of three owned and managed by the town council. In a report to the finance committee of the council finance officer Roger Dyke said there has been a 46 per cent national non-domestic rates increase for Central car park.
“The rateable value was £118,000 in 2016/17 with a rate demand of £58,646,” Mr Dyke said. “This has increased to £206,000 rateable value and a £85,339 demand.”
Mr Dyke said that the large increase may have been triggered by a request for information made by the Valuation Office Agency in June 2015 which was completed and returned.
Oswestry Town Council operates three car parks – Central, Smithfield Street and the Horsemarket. Fees charged by the council to motorists provide income for the council’s budget.
It has 483 spaces and 24 disabled bays with charges ranging from 50p for up to an hour to £3 for up to six hours. In 2015, when the council filled in the information request from the Valuation Office Agency, figures were released showing that, over the previous 12 months, 830,074 tickets were issued for the three car parks run by the council – 19,530 more than in the previous 12 months, and an increase of 2.4 percent.
The car park is also the site of Oswestry’s public toilets.
Originally run by Shropshire Council, the town council took over the responsibility when the unitary authority decided to give up responsibility for them.
