This article is from page 9 of the 2013-04-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
MORE Kilrush businesses will close under the new local government structure, that will see a new Clare County Council take over the responsibilities of Kilrush Town Council, its longest serving member has warned.
Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF) said, “When Clare County Council takes over we will see rates going up and more Kilrush businesses going to the wall unfortunately,” he said.
Kilrush businesses have shown a consistency when it comes to paying the rate in the last number of years.
A total of 76 per cent of commercial rates have been collected in the town for 2012, and the figure continues to rise as some cash strapped businesses have opted to pay the local tax in instalments.
At the end of 2012 more than € 221,000 was colleted in rates from businesses in the West Clare town, up € 5,000 on the previous year.
The most up to date figures also show that write offs were down from more than a € 107,000 at the end of 2011 to € 71,678.50 on December 31, 2012.
Kilrush Town Council accounts also show that business people in the town managed to pay a substantial amounts of the rates owing from 2012 during the first month of this year – almost € 28,000.
At the end of 2012 uncollected rates reached € 123,532.49, but this had dropped to € 95,744.51 by the end of January.
Describing commercial rates as “a crucial part of our funding”, town clerk John Corry said that Kilrush Town Council is making every effort to recover these outstanding payments, while being mindful of the economic climate.
He explained that the local authority had engaged various methods of payments with businesses, including payment by instalment.
“We are trying to be as flexible as we can,” he said.
“The outstanding balance for 2012 continues to reduce due to the instalment payment we have introduced,” he said.
At the end of 2011 the rate collection in Kilrush was also 76 per cent, making it the highest collection rate in the county.