Around 1000 people rally at Kings Parade against Bathurst Regional Council's proposed rates hike

Bathurst Regional Council announced in early August that it was proposing to raise rates by almost 70 per cent over the next two financial years, citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts of recent weather events on local infrastructure as among the factors to justify the increase.

While council staff proposed a cumulative increase of 68.6 per cent over two years, council has put forward this and three other options for consideration during its community consultation phase, which started on August 23.

A community group, Figure It Out BRC, was formed in opposition to the rates rise and it organised a rally in Kings Parade on Thursday afternoon, opposite the council chambers,

The crowd heard from one of the founders of Figure It Out BRC, Sophie Wright, and Stuart Pearson, a Kelso resident who ran as a candidate for Bathurst Regional Council in 2021.

Ms Wright said ratepayers should not be the first option to fix what she said was a mess of council's own making.

"The people of Bathurst are scared right now; anxious for their jobs, their houses and their businesses," she said.

"This financial mess didn't happen overnight.

"The fact council raised the idea of such a huge jump in rates to try to rectify the current financial issues faced by council is extremely tone-deaf given the current cost-of-living crisis."

Since the community group was formed last month, Ms Wright said she's been overwhelmed by people reaching out to her with their stories.

"I've had a pensioner in her 70s come into my place of work, who was nearly in tears and shaking," she said.

"She said [the rate increase] will be the difference between her medication or her groceries.

"That actually gets me really upset.

"There are businesses whose employees are coming in stressed and talking about this every day, that they might have to sell their house."

Notable attendees on the day included current Bathurst councillors Ben Fry and Kirralee Burke, as well as ex-councillor Alex Christian and Member of the Legislative Council Sam Farraway.

Bathurst mayor Robert Taylor and fellow councillor Marg Hogan were apologies.

Ms Wright addressed the crowd first before Mr Pearson took the stage.

He said he met with council's general manager David Sherley and director of corporate services and finance Aaron Jones back on Monday, August 28.

Mr Pearson said they provided him with information about how council's financial situation had been getting worse since 2013.

He said the city's three museums and motor racing events at Mount Panorama were consistently losing money for council.

Figures provided to attendees detailed that the total revenue over total operating expenses could be reduced to almost zero with increased revenue and reduced expenditure of just $18 million.

Reading this on mobile web? Download our news app. It's faster, easier to read and we'll send you alerts for breaking news as it happens. Download in the Apple Store or Google Play.