While many councils in the region have increased rates this financial year, ratepayers in Tenterfield were given a reprieve as the council held off increasing how much ratepayers need to fork out.

But in won't be the same in the following two years.

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The Tenterfield Star has been told local residents are "terrified" since the council announced a proposal at the end of July to lift rates by 104.49 per cent over the next two financial years.

While a group of concerned residents said they were "fighting back", the council is concerned they have been spreading misinformation about the pending increases.

Residents have thrown their weight behind a group in the town called 'Our Shire Our Council Initiative' (OSOCI). The group's president Clive Powell said they were giving the community a voice.

They hosted a community meeting recently, which about 100 residents attended, some shared personal stories, and organisers said there were some "very desperate people out there".

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) approved all applications made by New England councils and eighty-one other NSW councils to increase their rates above the level of the annual rate peg this year.

The 'modest increases' were approved for Armidale Regional Council, Glen Innes Severn Council, Inverell Shire Council, Moree Shire Council and Uralla Shire Council following an additional special variation process.

While Tenterfield had considered applying, at an extraordinary meeting in February the council rejected a recommendation to dramatically increase rates for the 2022-23 financial year, as well as 2023-24, as they faced an annual budget shortfall of $3.8m.

Instead an amendment from deputy mayor John Macnish was supported to hold off for 2022-23, and ask its CEO for options for 2023-24, which would look at what council services were impacted by not getting the increased revenue. It was unanimously supported.

But the coming years do not look like they will save residents from an increase in council rates.

Mr Powell said one man who had recently bought a business in town would see his rates double from $8000 to $16,000.

"He had done studies before moving here to see if the business was viable, but if the rates go up he will go from having a viable business to only breaking even or suffering a loss," Mr Powell said.

"The residents are happy somebody is stepping up and helping them voice their concerns on something that could make them leave town," he said. "Many have lived here all their lives and might have to move because they can't afford it.

"There are a lot of elderly widows, a lot of single pensioners who are really struggling.

"There are a lot of people who don't know how they're going to keep living in this town," he said.

OSOCI member Pamela Lee went on to explain how a lady approached her in the street who she said was "devastated".

"She said to me, 'I don't know how I'm going to put food on the table, because I'm not even sure I'm going to have a table'. She doesn't know how she's going to cope. She's terrified of what's coming," Ms Lee said.

"That's who we are standing for: the individuals, ourselves and everybody else," she said.

The association's stated mission is to see the council achieve a balanced budget by controlling spending, reducing debt and capping rates, fees and charges to the CPI.

They plan to hold regular meetings - either monthly or six-weekly - and are in the process of creating a petition.

But Tenterfield Shire Council's CEO, Daryl Buckingham, said he had concerns the association was fear mongering to some of the community's most vulnerable members based on flawed intel, biased information and incorrect analysis of what is a complex and heavily legislated subject matter.

The group wants to know how the council got into a position of such a deficit.

"Reasons they have continuously given is because of what is happening in the Ukraine or cost shifting from state to local government," Ms Lee said.

"There is no specifics and that's the issue," she said. "We've been told there is a cost blow-out, this is what has to be paid and everybody has to pay it."

Ms Lee said the council had presented four options to the community - 1: reduce service levels; 2: sell and/or dispose assets that will reduce associated ongoing expenses; 3: increase income raised through rates, uses, fees and charges; 4: a combination of all.

"Are you kidding me, that's it?

"I went through their 10-year plan, their supposed plan for the future, and I could not find one thing that gives us an avenue other than the four options given here, nothing," Ms Lee said. "There was nothing about seeking income other than from ratepayers. Everything came back to ratepayers having a special rate variation," she said.

"Winston Churchill says, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. I think we can take a leaf out of his book. This is what's happened; they have failed to plan."

Mr Buckingham said there was no smoking gun or time when a mistake was made.

He explained the increase in the cost of doing business - including an annualised inflation rate of around nine per cent - had created an urgency and exacerbated the challenge, however, added it was only part of the story.

Council is looking at asset sales and other ways to raise its revenue, he said.

It is also lobbying to have expensive roads assets returned to state government as well as increase unrestricted grants money from both state and federal governments.

"Council recognises the financial challenges it faces," Mr Buckingham said.

"It is taking evasive action to avoid a dire financial situation in the near future.

"It is attempting to implement a program that will provide financial security for the foreseeable future; it doesn't wish to implement a rate rise; it simply has to," he said.

Ms Lee said the members of OSOCI had taken on this fight because they care.

"We came to Tenterfield because we loved it and we want to stay here because we love it, and we're going to fight for it because we love it," she said.

Mr Powell is a ratepayer and has lived in Tenterfield for two-and-a-half years while Ms Lee moved to the region in December and is in the process of buying a property.

"I'm looking at that now," she said. "Do I want to buy in Tenterfield when the rates are going to be this high? I'm holding off. And I have spoken to others who are doing the exact same thing. I've decided to rent here and wait to see what happens.

"I have worked for two shire councils and one city council so I have been in management before with those councils and I do understand how they function," she said.

"We realise there is a big hole here and whatever way we move forward it will not be claimless," Mr Powell said.

"There is no easy way out of this but it would seem to us it's the ratepayers who are going to cop all the pain, and council administration doesn't seem to want to take a haircut."

Mr Buckingham said this was not a new challenge, and councils all over the state were facing similar issues, adding information suggested 35 per cent of councils would seek a substantial rate rise in the near future, including Armidale in the local region.

He said there were empirical, historical facts and evidence-based reasons for all the actions and activities the council partook in in terms of the subject matter.

Mr Buckingham explained that the special rate variation process was stipulated and controlled by the state government, and said council would not have the final say.

"There are politics at play, and many councils are in the same boat; the NSW state government system is the cause, not individual councils or elected members; it is endemic, which is telling," he said.

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