![Echuca residents were told to leave as the Campaspe River was set to surpass 2011 flood levels. (James Ross/AAP PHOTOS) Echuca residents were told to leave as the Campaspe River was set to surpass 2011 flood levels. (James Ross/AAP PHOTOS)](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/7f5GEYimwWveccZe67yRBS/fa0efc74-d126-4297-ab89-726d4031272e.jpg/r0_75_800_525_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A Northern Victorian shire council has announced a $1.1 million rates relief package, for properties affected by last year's floods.
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Campaspe Shire Council will credit the $200 municipal charge to all properties that have had a secondary impact assessment and been through the supplementary rates process.
A secondary impact assessment is the process for determining the impact of an emergency on the affected community.
It is followed by a supplementary rates process, which involves an adjustment of the rates by the Valuer-General.
Mayor Rob Amos said council would also apply a 50 per cent rate reduction, pro rata from October 14 to June 30, to all properties that have not yet had the secondary impact assessment or been through the supplementary rates process.
The properties were identified as being within the North Central Catchment Management Authority's (CMA) flood mapping zone.
"The council has recognised our ratepayers are hurting and we want to provide some relief - it's costing us a fair bit of money," Cr Amos said.
"We want to be as generous as possible, without having too much of an impact on the council's financial position, and we think this is a fair balance."
The estimated cost of the relief package to council is $1.128 million.
But Cr Amos said the final figure would be known once the secondary assessment process was completed and rate adjustments had been applied to all qualifying properties.
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Getting assessors out to the sheer volume of properties affected had meant not everyone who had suffered from the floods had yet been contacted, Cr Amos said.
"A lot of people are still not home," he said.
"We still have more than 50 per cent of our Rochester residents who are still not home.
"We can knock on the door as many times as we like, but if they are not home we are not allowed on the property.
"It's just huge numbers - we have tried to map as many as we can but we just know, by the sheer scale of this, we have missed a few."
Cr Amos said using the NCCMA flood mapping council had been able to identify an additional 1,508 properties yet to be assessed, on top of about 1000 which already received rate adjustments from the Valuer-General.
He said the package was a key part of the broad range of supports and resources the council was providing to help those impacted by the floods.
"Last October's flood had a devastating impact on properties across Campaspe," Cr Amos said.
"While various government grants have been available to businesses and primary producers, providing rate relief to flood-impacted properties is the most equitable economic way council can help ratepayers."
All ratepayers identified as flood-impacted would receive a letter in the next few weeks explaining the rate adjustments, along with a frequently-asked-questions sheet.
"If a ratepayer does not receive a letter from council by the end of April and believes they are eligible for a rate adjustment for their flood-impacted property, we encourage them to call council to discuss their individual circumstances," Cr Amos said.
"What we didn't want to do is miss out on those who haven't had a secondary assessment.
"We tried to work out the fairest way of doing that, and this is the model we came up with."
He encouraged all flood-impacted ratepayers who have not yet had a secondary impact assessment to contact council on 1300 666 535 as soon as possible.
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