Ed, Readers who recently received their 2016/17 rates notices will notice the impact of the temporary 6.5% Council rate rise. Average residential rates are now $1,109.00. Average business rates in Grafton and South are now $4,338. Average business rates in Maclean CBD are now over $2,000. Average business rates in Yamba CBD are now over $3,100. Readers may care to reflect on what the ‘preliminary work’ recently undertaken by Clarence Valley Council for a massive and permanent 41% rates rise would do to the above rates and to the Valley if they were allowed to become a reality. As consistently noted in The Clarence Forum: The Taxation to Prosperity Pathway is never going to succeed. We need a better way and we need it soon. John Hagger, South Grafton