Residents not happy about rate hike

Samara Cornell is not impressed by the raise in rates announced yesterday.

Max Fleet

THABEBAN resident Samara Cornell wonders what she is getting for her rates after the announcement of a 6% increase yesterday.

The 23-year-old, who is working two jobs to pay the bills and also studies, questions the need for the increase.

“It's not right really,” she said.

“It's gone up every year but we're not getting better services.

“We've still got no public transport and we've got dodgy parking.”

Ms Cornell said she thought people would not mind paying more in rates if they could see they were getting something for it.

She pointed to her own situation as an example.

Ms Cornell lives in a quiet cul de sac which she says was ignored recently when nearby roads were fixed.

“Recently they were re-bitumising the streets around us but ours didn't get done,” she said.

“We've still got potholes in the road.

“We're paying the extra money but they still can't fix our road.”

Ms Cornell said one of her neighbours had been so frustrated by the situation he had tried to fix some of the potholes himself.

“In Burnett Heads they're paying about the same rates we do but they don't get nearly the same services,” she said.

But Ms Cornell may get her road fixed this year.

The council's budget has allocated $20 million to be spent on transport infrastructure, focusing particularly on improving and maintaining the region's road and drainage network.

Included in that is $1 million for the construction of pathways.

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