Bridge Mall traders are fighting for the retention of a 30-year-old council agreement helping them pay for security and promotion.
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The Bridge Mall Special Rate is a levy on top of normal rates, and is based on the square footage of each store. The money is collected by council, then returned to the Bridge Mall Business Association for security, promotion, a manager and events.
For 2018/2019, it would equate to a total of $218,000.
City of Ballarat’s officers have recommended the traders’ special rate be discontinued, and the traders collect their own money for promotion and security. It will be considered at an ordinary August 1 council meeting.
Messer and Opie’s manager Tracy Govan said that the special rate was “desperately” needed to ensure the survival of Bridge Mall’s trade.
“If it’s scrapped, it will be very detrimental,” she said.
“We won’t have security, and we don’t get the things we run down here ourselves, we don’t get the promotion … it’ll have a big impact.”
In a report, council officers stated they needed 100 per cent of traders to be on-board, and without that “any appeal to VCAT has a strong likelihood of succeeding”.
Seventy-three tenants have voted to pay the special rate, four are opposed and three are yet to respond.
Bridge Mall centre manager John Marios said “naturally enough” the city is protecting its interests, but traders may be less likely to pay if not taken through their rates.
We have been a bit fearful that some people may be in arrears or neglect to pay it, and the unfair burden is put on the rest of the stores.
- Bridge Mall centre manager John Marios
The association’s executive team will hold a meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss the council officer’s recommendation.
Special rates like the one in Bridge Mall are used in more than 70 shopping precincts across Victoria, including Glenferrie Road.
Mr Marios said the collection of money would “difficult if it was left up to” the association, and “for the overall benefit” of the association, it should continue.
“Over the last ten years, we’ve reinvested that money into the local economy, at about $3.4 million of money collected from the traders.
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The association has spent $330,000 on security in the precinct, with 64 cameras installed in the mall.
Mr Marios is set to retire in the coming months, but no-one has been appointed to replace him due to the uncertainty created by the special rate kerfuffle.
Ms Govan said the association collecting the money themselves “may work”, but would mean require independent calculation of rates and “someone to manage it at all times”.
She said promotions like the monthly farmer’s market and Christmas events encourages more families to visit the shopping strip.
“It really does bring a lot of people to the Bridge Mall, which we desperately need”.