RMI Petrol took part in an industry-wide meeting with Tory MP Robert Neill yesterday to lay out its case against the
2010 Business Rates valuations for petrol stations.
RMI Petrol chairman Brian Madderson said the meeting with Neill, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government, was also attended by MP Philip Dunne plus Sheridan Westlake, Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and Nick Cooper from the Department of Communities and Local Government.
For the industry, Adam Wadlow of Barber Wadlow, ACS chief executive James Lowman, UKPIA director general Chris Hunt and Car Wash Association chairman David Charman were in attendance.
Madderson has also written to Neill, outlining the industry’s concerns over Business Rates and the Valuation Office Agency’s assessment methodology for forecourts. As well as providing additional data and information, Madderson has called for another meeting to put forward proposals from the sector that have the full support of the industry. These would be "largely based on a return to the methodology used in the 2005 Revaluation Scheme".
He added in the letter that there was "real urgency" as there had already been anecdotal evidence that site closures had occurred or were impending, adding that the formal appeal system was "desperately bureacratic and slow".
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