Council charges

I WOULD like to add my voice to that of three of Toowoomba’s largest developers in protesting against exorbitant council infrastructure charges. The point needs to be made that these are new charges. They are exponentially greater than what developers were expected to pay prior to council amalgamation.

The Mayor’s response in essence was that if the council didn’t charge developers then they would have to charge ratepayers.

The people of Toowoomba are being treated as though they are stupid. Who really pays these charges? The developer or the young Australia couple who signs up for a $350,000 mortgage to buy a small block in one of the poorly planned Glenvale housing estates.

At least $30,000 of this cost is directly attributable to government charges. No wonder the council bureaucrats are approving these subdivisions with smaller and smaller lot sizes. The same principle applies to the infrastructure charges on commercial development. The price we pay for groceries and health services is higher because of the costs put on businesses.

What we have is a legislated system that allows council bureaucrats to inflate their available budget by charging businesses whatever they wish because of a “they can afford to pay it” mentality.

How is this money spent? Well that should be the subject of an auditor’s inquiry. I guess there would have been significant wages expense when about 20 TRC staff driving TRC vehicles arrived at Glenvale Park about 9am recently. They then proceeded to inspect the small new swing set with lattes in hand.

Wake up voters. The rising cost of living is in fact taxation by stealth. — JONATHAN LOUGHLIN, Gowrie Mountain