Tramore Town Council has sent a signal of encouragement to the resort’s hard pressed business sector by reducing the local commercial rate by 30 pc – from €3.37 to €2.36 in the €. But Town Manager Brian White was at pains to emphasise at the Council’s annual budget meeting that the reduction applied only to the town rate, which is just a tiny fraction of the county rate which must also be paid.
Nevertheless Cllr Ann Marie Power and other members interpreted the reduction as significant in that it sent out a message of support, which she said was important in the current financial climate.
Equally, Cllr Joe Conway welcomed a €1,000 provision towards town twinning which, although a small amount, will help advance the long standing aim of finding a suitable twin location. Also, given concern over the future of the Coastguard Station, he was happy to see €6,800 allocated towards the cost of keeping it open next year. That’s the same figure as was made available this year but there had been fears it would be cut.
And Cllr Maxine Keoghan welcomed a doubling of community
support funding to €2,000. She said that was even more important now that other sources of revenue were harder to come by.
Proposed total expenditure for next year is down from €73,815 to €66,704, the biggest outlay being €18,000 for tourist and general development, although that figure is €3,000 less than was spent this year.
With rent for Tramore House – from the NRA – amounting to €31,700, that leaves an amount of €34,934 to be demanded from the County Council, equivalent to the yield from the town rate.
