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No final details are available as yet on what the consequences are for business owners as a result of the town council being abolished next year Photo: The Avondhu

No final details are available as yet on what the consequences are for business owners as a result of the town council being abolished next year, the AGM of Fermoy Business Action Group was told on Monday night.

Outgoing Chairman, Cllr Noel McCarthy, said it'll be the end of the month before they'll have information on the likely consequences. He felt that when local businesses come under the aegis of the county council following abolition, their rates will rise.

He didn't think that they'd be put up in the first year but would be raised in the second and third years. He said it might be wise for business owners to get their own private consultant to evaluate their property for rates.

The plan to standarise rates throughout Ireland was discussed. The only variable would be the square footage of premises.

There will be other implications for business too, when the town council is abolished, the meeting heard. Parking, for example, will also become the responsibility of the county council. One attendee felt that, when that happened, parking charges will also be standardised across the county. They couldn't leave one town paying one parking charge and another town paying a different charge, he pointed out. It was felt that, in return for increased rates, they should seek some concessions - free parking being seen as the one of most benefit in attracting people to the town.

"It's important we are seen as a strong body on this. We need to get something back," Noel Barnes, outgoing Treasurer of the group, and a member of Fermoy Town Council, said. Adrian Godwin who took over as Chairman of the group, said that with town councils being abolished, there was a need for them to be a bigger, stronger group. He also said their group should seek to work with other agencies and groups such as the North Cork Enterprise Board and Blackwater Tourism Group to get more people into the town.

One suggestion from the floor was that the town council vote to introduce free parking before it is abolished. It was considered a good idea with the hope being that the county council would then leave it free. Councillors McCarthy and Barnes were urged to take the idea forward.

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