Hackett's bid to increase development charge fails
Green Party Cllr Mark Hackett received no support for his bid to have the development contribution charge of Offaly County Council linked to inflation at the January meeting of the local authority this week.
Cllr Hackett was one of the three people to make submissions/observations on the scheme when it went on public display before Christmas, and he told the meeting that his submission “should be considered, at least” and the council were “only fooling themselves” if they failed to match the development contribution charge to inflation.
In his submission, Cllr Hackett said it would be “a very short-sighted view” of the council not to increase development contributions to keep in line with inflation and would end up costing the local authority “in excess of over €6 million euros over the next five years, at a time when the council can least afford this.”
He added that the incremental rise that he was proposing would “ensure availability of funding for capital infrastructure for the communities that we serve.”
Cllr Tony McCormack acknowledged that the council is “in a very difficult position financially” but he said its primary role was “to encourage development” and increasing charges was not the way to go about this.
Fine Gael’s Cllr Liam Quinn said increasing development contribution charges in line with inflation was “no modest increase” as it would push up the cost of a one-off house “by around 25%.”
“Putting hefty charges on business and homeowners, particularly in the middle of a pandemic, is not going to make up for the shortfall in the council’s finances, no matter what way you look at it,” pointed out Cllr Quinn, who said he was totally opposed to Cllr Hackett’s proposal.
As Cllr Hackett failed to get a seconder for his proposal to align the council’s development contribution charge with inflation, the meeting decided to adopt the Draft Development Scheme 2021-2025, with Cllr John Leahy proposing the adoption and Cllr Frank Moran seconding.
On the recommendation of Chief Executive, Anna- Marie Delaney, Offaly County Council decided to accept an amendment exempting all primary and second-level schools from the development contribution charge.