Rates increase the last thing we need
Editorial Department • Published 14 Jun 2012 13:00
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Dear Sir, - I would like to add my voice to the letters which have recently featured in your newspaper concerning the proposed merger between Fermanagh District Council and Omagh District Council.
Given the estimated difference in debts attributable to the councils in 2015 (Fermanagh Council at £5-£6 million and Omagh Council at £17-£18 million) you do not have to be a mathematical genius to see that County Fermanagh residents look set to pick up the Omagh overspend. It will be through both domestic and business rates that we in Fermanagh will pay the price of Omagh's financial mismanagement. At a time when businesses are severely struggling and residents have increasingly low amounts of surplus income, the last thing we need is a significant rates increase. Therefore, it is time for the DUP and Sinn Fein politicians, with whom the power to make or break this decision rests, to stand up and show that they will not accept a decision which will drive this county into further despair. Ulster Unionist Party representatives have already made their opposition known. All our politicians, regardless of central party policy, should stand together for County Fermanagh. If they don't then it will be the ordinary, decent people of this County who will be left to suffer the consequences.
Yours faithfully,
Howard Thornton,
Enniskillen
This letter appeared in Impartial Reporter 14 Jun 12
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