The City of Canning continues to deny an issue with its eRates system, despite dozens of community members slamming the city about an apparent failure to deliver rates.
Willetton resident John Alexander is just one member of the community who failed to receive his eRates, an issue he was first alerted to by his neighbours, who also did not receive their notice.
“I’m on the eRates system and when I realised I hadn’t received my rates notice, I called the city and they told me to check my junk mail,” he said.
“I checked, and obviously it wasn’t there so I contacted them again and they gave me details on how to pay, so I did.
“They said I should have received my rates notice in July.
“It actually showed up on November 7.”
In a previous statement to Examiner Newspapers, Mayor Patrick Hall seemed to put the onus back on ratepayers for the apparent failure if the city’s eRates system, a move that Mr Alexander described as extremely disappointing.
“I am extremely disappointed that the mayor thinks that ratepayers are responsible for the failure of Canning council to correctly deliver rates via their eRates system and then to blame ratepayers for not paying the rates.
“I have lived in Canning for 40 years and the council has always been responsible for the delivery of rate notices to ratepayers and the ratepayers are then responsible for paying their rates.
“With the introduction of eRates, the mayor has decided that the council will abrogate its responsibility for the rate notice delivery and shift it to the ratepayers.
“In my opinion, the council needs to continue its responsibility for the delivery of the rate notices and not charge ratepayers interest for not paying a bill that they have not received.”
Mr Hall said that 250 residents claimed they had not received their rates notice via eRates, adding that the city has not identified any faults with its eRates system.
It’s not an answer Mr Alexander is buying.
“At the very least, the council should waive all interest payments until their system is fixed and ratepayers all correctly receive their rate notices,” he said.
Mr Hall said 92.50 per cent of ratepayers have either paid their rates in full or are currently on an instalment plan or other payment arrangement.
He added that the payment of rates by residents is on a par, for this time of year, with previous years.
