CLIENT: CHAPEL STREET PRECINCT ASSOCIATION
OUTLET: HERALD SUN
Businesses are hanging on by a thread in retail strips as the coronavirus crisis devastates the industry but Stonnington Council wants to raise rates for business owners. With retail businesses haemorrhaging money due to COVID-19, Stonnington Council has proposed a 2 per cent increase in rates in its draft budget.
The council says the rise is required due to a “significant fall in revenue and a severely impacted economy as a result of the pandemic’’. But Chapel Street Precinct Association pleaded for the plan to be scrapped at a meeting on Thursday night, claiming store owners have endured an 85 per cent downturn in foot traffic since March.
CSPA president and business owner Justin O’Donnell said the proposed rise would heap pressure on retailers already “on the edge’’.