AN Athy businessman whose rates are set to increase by approximately 90% has proposed a rates strike until ‘common sense is brought to bear’.

Adrian Conlan of Conlan’s Centra says he is going to fight the rate hikes “tooth and nail” and take every step open to him until his appeals are successful.

Businesses across Co Kildare last week received letters which indicated whether the rates they would pay in 2018 would increase or decrease, based on an adjustment of the estimated rental valuation of their properties. The revaluation of rates in the county is part of a programme which is currently being rolled out across the country.

Mr Conlan said he had paid his rates bill every year since he opened the shop in 2006. But he says the rate revaluation which came through the post last week will prove impossible for him to pay.

“Our turnover is 60% of what it was when the Celtic Tiger was in full flow, yet my rates are set to increase by 90% in 2018 from my previous bill. I have no problem paying rates; I understand the principle of rates. But while some people’s rates have decreased mine are to go up by 90% when my turnover is down so much. If anyone can make sense of that I will gladly listen. Athy town is struggling, businesses are barely surviving and there is no way we can take this lying down. We knew there was going to be a rates increase to bring Athy into line with the rest of the county, we were expecting that and we were expecting an increase but not by f***king 90%.

“I am going to fight this and I am going to help others to fight it as well. I will be suggesting that we suspend payment to Kildare Co Council until common sense is brought to bear, I have already spoken to some other people about this and this is something we are very strongly considering. My idea is that we will lodge the money into an account instead of paying the council until this is sorted out.”

Oisin Curran of Odyssey Validation Consultants which is located at the Waterways in Sallins says that following the revaluation the rates paid by the business will go from being ‘completely excessive’ to ‘less excessive’.

Mr Curran says that the problem with the rates valuation from his point of view is that the rental value of the property used for the valuation is too high.

“The rental valuation for the property according to the document that we have received is 40% higher than the actual rent we pay. When I questioned it I was told that this value was indicative for the Sallins area. The Waterways is still in Nama so we are paying for services that we haven’t got and the rents paid here aren’t anything like what they seem to think they are. It looks like our rates will be reduced by 30% in 2018 from the 2017 figure and it is good news but it is all relative, the rate is still way too high. I would say that the rates we will pay will go from being completely excessive to less excessive, but they will still be excessive.”

Kildare Chamber CEO Allan Shine told the Kildare Nationalist that they have received a steady stream of calls since the new rate valuation letters were sent out.

“We have had some telling us that their rates have decreased, some are telling us about increases and others are telling us that there is no change for them. For example I know of one guy in the M7 Business Park whose rates will be €7,000 cheaper while another person who operates from the food court in the Whitewater Shopping Centre in Newbridge who is facing a €6,000 increase. What is happening is this, in the case of Kildare Co Council collects €58 million from rates each year and this is an effort to spread the burden across the various businesses more equally. What we are finding is that hotels. nursing homes, service stations and bars appear to be hit with increases while light industrial manufacturing and warehousing in out of town business parks are seeing decreases. It depends on the building and other variables. This is causing hurt and pain and we would expect some valuations to be challenged. However businesses need to realise that they have only 40 days to appeal or else they miss the boat. If they miss this deadline they can bring it to a tribunal but there will be a cost on this.”

The closing date for making representations for Kildare ratepayers will be 18 April 2017.

The Valuation Office will have a ‘Walk-In Clinic’ at the Office of Kildare Co Council on today (Tuesday 21 March) from 9.30am to 4.30pm.

This clinics will provide ratepayers with an opportunity to discuss their valuation on a one to one basis with Valuation Office valuers who have been working on the Kildare revaluation project.

When all the representations made by ratepayers have been considered, the Valuation Office will issue Final Valuation Certificates in early September 2017 and publish a new valuation list for Kildare Co Council on 15 September.