Mayo householders getting nothing from LPT claim councillors

Rural householders in Mayo will start withholding payments of the Local Property Tax unless they see improvement to services in their area according to an Independent councillor.

The lack of services in rural areas is one of the big issues coming on the doorsteps during this local election campaign according to a number of councillors at last Monday's monthly meeting of Mayo County Council.

The Local Property Tax (LPT) is an annual self-assessed tax charged on the market value of all residential properties with the revenue raised used to fund the provision of services by local authorities.

Independent councillor Christy Hyland told the meeting that there is a lot of anger among many people in rural areas and he could not blame them if they decided not to pay the LPT.

“The atmosphere [from the public] is they are getting nothing for our LPT and people are getting organised to withhold property tax and I don't blame them. They are getting nothing for their LPT,” he said.

His comments were supported by fellow Independent councillor John O'Malley who said that the least people in rural Ireland deserve from their LPT is a decent road to their home.

“I have got awful complaints from people over the Local Property Tax and it is quite embarrassing to drive to someone's home and see the condition of the road. They then ask you what they get for their local property tax and what they get for taxing their car. In the rural area they get nothing...they don't get footpaths, or street lights or sewerage or water or roads gritted in winter and the least they deserve is a decent road to their home,” he said.

The lack of funding for local services from the central government was also highlighted by Cllr O'Malley.

“We have a big network of roads and we will have to get the Government to allocate more money because the council can only do so much for the money they get. I try to explain to people we don't get enough funding and some accept it and some don't. We need to get more funding,” he added.

Achill councillor Paul McNamara concurred that the LPT is often brought up on the doorsteps and he called for a second allocation of road funding as the lack of funding is now showing. Robeen-based councillor Patsy O'Brien also commented that the people in rural areas were getting nothing from the LPT while Cllr Seamus Weir described it as an 'unfair tax on the ordinary householder' and called for it to be scrapped.