{"status":"ok","message":"Success!","html":"\u003Cp\u003EUnfortunately Erland, the claim is true as I for 1 who runs a small business in Katoomba will be closing my doors if I am forced to pay an increase in rent to cover these rates proposed by BMCC.  my lease comes up for renewal in September \u0026amp; if my landlord is forced to pay an extra 56% in rates to cater for BMCC\u0026#39;s incompetence then we will no doubt be forced to pay these rates through a minimum of 56% rent increase.\u003C/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003Ewe have been struggling for some time with a lack of tourists due to the frustration faced by many with the delays on the Great western jokeway, we often have customers complain about the extra hour it took to get to Katoomba from Blaxland \u0026amp; listening to them state they won\u0026#39;t be coming this way until the road is finished is disheartening. what are council doing about this? increasing our rates so we have to pay when we can\u0026#39;t afford it.\u003C/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003Etoday Katoomba Street was almost like a ghost town \u0026amp; has been like that a fair bit this past week \u0026amp; this is reflected in our very poor sales. we used to be under the council library before the works started and had a very profitable business but then the works \u0026amp; jack hammers began causing us to basically close our doors with council refusing to acknowledge that they were responsible for a business earning around $12k to 18K a month would suddenly slump to 1-2K. now they are proposing that we should fork out another 56% in rates for absolutely NO services rendered.  we don\u0026#39;t have parking in front of our shop we don\u0026#39;t even have off-street parking for ourselves nor do we have a rubbish collection service as we basically have to take our rubbish home every day \u0026amp; put it in our household collections.  In 10 years of living in the upper Mtns I have rarely seen any works carried out by council in the main street of Katoomba except for removal of car park spaces to cater for what they call \u0026quot;Beautification\u0026quot; planting trees. \u0026amp; destruction of businesses whilst renovating a Civic centre which still leaks as the old shops \u0026amp; new shop owners along with the library are finding out.  basically the BMCC are just interested in getting as much money from whoever they can to appease the fact they have squandered their spendings on stupid things.\u003C/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EAs stated I for one who owns Ritchie\u0026#39;s Comics \u0026amp; Collectables will be closing \u0026amp; therefore adding yet another vacant shop to an already half deserted strip if council go ahead with this crap \u003C/p\u003E\u0026nbsp;"}