Norton owed $23 million

Herald Correspondent
Norton Town Council is now owed more than $23 million by ratepayers, which is making it increasingly difficult for the local authority to provide proper service delivery to the community.

Acting town secretary Mrs Bester Maramba told The Herald that industries owed the bulk of the debt at $15 million, followed by businesses in the high and low-density areas, whose arrears now stand at $1,5 million. Private land developers owe $1 million.

“I can confirm that that Norton Town Council is owed more than $23 million by residents, private land developers, industrial and commercial sectors. This scenario has greatly affected our performance in providing satisfying service delivery,” said Mrs Maramba.

Engaged

Council has since engaged some banks that are interesting in buying the council’s debt at a discount.

“We have not yet concluded, but there are banks we have proposed to partner with in debt factoring. We will agree on a certain discount and they will deposit immediate cash to us and they take over the duty of follow ups on our debtors,” said Mrs Maramba.

“To private land developers, who have totally failed, we are pleading for their compliance in surrendering some stands back to us as a way of clearing their debts so that we can resell them.”

Mrs Maramba said there was a problem as some land developers were claiming to be selling their stands at non-profitable prices. She said though Norton Town Council was pushing for some defaulters to engage council, the response had not been encouraging.

“The local authority continues to urge debtors to either make the necessary arrangements to clear their arrears or to pay their accounts when due to avoid inconvenient interest charges,” she said.