Low rates key to business mood in Midleton

Despite the recession Midleton remains a thriving town for business and its chamber president says that is in no small part due to the town council cutting its rates by 9% over the last three years.

Midleton now has the second lowest rates in the county at €60.35.

Midleton Chamber of Commerce president Donal Kelleher said the town council had helped businesses through the recession and that was why shoppers see very few boarded-up premises compared with other towns.

The council decided not to impose any rate increases from 2008-2010. The following year it cut them by 2% and repeated that in 2012. This year it went further with a 5% reduction.

“The town council has done fantastically well for business in Midleton. They are the unsung heroes,” said Mr Kelleher. “Tullamore is around the same size as us and its chamber of commerce came down to see why we were doing so well. We told them why.”

However, he is seriously concerned about the harmonisation of rates with the county.

“We’re at €60.35 whereas the county council is €14.40 more. That’s a 24% difference and if equalisation goes ahead somebody with annual rates of €3,000 would have to pay €715 more,” he said.

He is also worried that when the county council takes over the control of rates much of the money Midleton businesses contribute will then be spent outside the town.

The town council has decided to spend €4.5m on capital projects from 2013 to 2015 which will include upgrading footpaths, roads, public lighting, and parking.

“If the county council decides not to reinvest all the money it gets from rates in the town back into the town the some of these projects could be scrapped. We’ll be at the mercy of somebody else’s pen.”

Town clerk Joe McCarthy said there were 471 ratepayers within his control. He said there had been a notable decline in recent years in the amount of struggling business people who were able to pay.

“The amount collected in 2012 fell to 76% [of total supposed to pay] and we decided we had to respond to the obvious difficulty by dropping the rates by a further 5%,” said Mr McCarthy.

“We’d prefer people keep businesses going. Vacant properties are no good for anybody, even though the rates make up 40% of our income. And for 2014 I’ve no doubt whatsoever that we’ll make a further reduction.”

Solicitor Ken Murray said another key factor in Midleton’s success is that it doesn’t charge for parking.

“People don’t abuse it. I’m concerned that pay parking and increased rates will be imposed in the years ahead. That will cripple business,” Mr Murray said.