Edition Bobbett1. Texts by Elizabeth F. Bobbett: 1.1.3. Correspondence, Letters to newspapers
1963 Elizabeth Bobbett: Letter to the Wicklow People, 02.03.1963
Wicklow Estimates Meeting Adjourned. NFA Deputation Appeals for Reduction of Rates. Council To Seek Government Grant for Snow Clearance.
Wicklow County Council met in Wicklow on Monday to consider the estimates presented by the County Manager and to adopt a rate for the coming financial year. The Manager is seeking an increase on the current rate of 1s 7d – from 36s 9d to 38s 4d.
After two and half hours of deliberations, the members had succeeded in cutting the estimate of expenditure by £3,000. They adjourned further consideration of the figures until next Monday.
Prior to the meeting a deputation from the County Wicklow Executive of the National Farmers’ Association gave their views on the question of increased rates and appealed to the council to set a headline for the country by refusing to adopt an increased rate for the coming year.
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Burden on Farmers
Mr. Michael Byrne, Chairman of the County Wicklow Executive NFA, said they came to remind the members of the very difficult year the farmers had due to the wet harvest of 1962 and the severe weather since Christmas. They could assure the Council that the farmers had no increase in income for many years, while their costs of production had been rising.
Continuing, the speaker stated that in 1962 the Government, realising the necessity for relief of rates on farmers, granted £2,500,000 towards relief of rates on agricultural land. The farmers could not allow any of that relief to be whittled away through county councils striking increased rates in their counties.
Mr. Byrne went on: “This burden of rates on agricultural land has become so important on the economy of the country that the Economic Research Institute has published a preliminary study of local taxation and finance which upholds that rates are especially heavy on farmers. A select committee of Dail Eireann has also been examining the matter and should have produced their report last November.”
The speaker said they held that health charges and main roads should be national charges and they asked the Council to support their claim to the Government in the matter. He added that while realising the difficulties of maintaining local services, they appealed to the Council not to increase the rates this year.
Miss Elizabeth F. Bobbett spoke in support of the statements made by the previous member of the deputation. Miss Bobbett said the evidence contained in the National Farm Survey of the inability of farmers, particularly the smaller farmers, to pay even the present demands of County Councils had brought forth a resolution from the National Council of the NFA. That resolution, she continued, was that the Government be pressed for total de-rating of the first £20 PLV.
The speaker went on to say that she knew that every member of the Council was being pressed for services for his own particular area, but she appealed to them not to press for them this year.
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