Levy worry

By Jade Lawton
A NEW business levy proposed for Berwick Village has sparked controversy among traders.
About 50 businesspeople attended a public meeting on Monday night to learn about the Business Improvement District (BID) levy, which would see between $300 and $500 added to traders’ annual rates.
The system would also offer traders a sort of emancipation from The City of Casey, with the extra cash to fund a centre manager, marketing and projects around the village.
The council would collect the money on top of normal rates, but the chamber would control the purse strings.
Berwick Village Chamber of Commerce president Harry Hutchinson said the BID would give the chamber ‘real teeth’.
“There have been incidents where works were not completed – we’ve all seen that happen in our median strip. As we are today, with only a handful of members, they (council) are not listening to us at all,” he said.
“With BIDs, then we’ve got real teeth.
“We all plod along saying there’s no parking, no this, no that, but we have nowhere to go … but this would make our marketplace grow. It will happen eventually. The negative is it’s going to cost everyone, but the positive is that everyone in this room is going to benefit. This is an opportunity to take control.”
The 300 traders within the designated geographic area would automatically become BVCC members.
Nobody from the City of Casey attended the meeting, a fact that riled some traders already disillusioned with the council’s slow progress on median strip works.
Guest speaker Michelle Frazer – who is also the Liberal Party candidate for Narre Warren North – said she had been involved in launching about eight BIDs across Victoria.
“I think Casey is looking at using some of this money for infrastructure – just don’t pay for anything they should be paying for in the first place,” she warned.
“But it can work really well. You know how much money you are going to raise each year, so you can budget and plan with confidence. I do highly recommend the process to you.”
A show of hands of those in favour of the BID ‘concept’ demonstrated that all traders present backed the idea – at least in theory.
One woman said the chamber needed to regain the confidence of non-members, particularly after the controversy created by the commercial waste scheme.
“I came in dead against this and now I’m sitting on the fence,” she said.
“But we’ve got no confidence in the council or chamber of commerce. The bins were the final nail in the coffin and you are not going to achieve this until you regain that confidence.”
But another trader said the council and chamber had been working for the good of the village.
“They respond very well. If you don’t know who to ring, then find out. That’s not my problem, that’s not Harry’s problem, that’s yours,” he said.
The BVCC will hold a series of meetings to inform traders of the BID levy, in an effort to get a 51 per cent positive vote.