In its draft Budget, Council had proposed to raise the rates by seven percent, which caused an outcry in the community, both in letters to the editor in The Ararat Advertiser and in the form of 19 submissions to Ararat Rural City Council.

A special meeting of council was held two weeks ago to consider submissions to the draft Budget and to listen to those who had requested they be able to speak to their submissions.

Rural ratepayers and farmers Peter Oddie, Noel Barr and Bruce McKay all spoke to their submissions, slamming Council for increasing the rates by seven percent and the farm differential rate to 60 percent of the general rate.

On Tuesday Cr Gary Hull moved that the rate increase be adjusted to six percent in lieu of seven percent and the budget be recalculated to cater for this adjustment.

Cr Hull thanked CEO Andrew Evans and staff for the hard work they had put in to the budget and the people who had put in submissions.

"I would like to think and hope that the council looks as if we can actually put our best foot forward and reduce the rate a little from seven percent back to six percent and show this community that this council is chopping as much out of the budget as possible to make things better for them out there," he said.

Cr Gwenda Allgood congratulated Cr Hull on taking the initiative of moving to reduce the rate rise.

"I think it is a great thing that a newer councillor will have a go at doing something like this because we have received, as a council, a bit of a beating out there in the community and this will make a little bit of difference to everyone," she said.

"He's taken the correct steps of going through the officers and talking to them about whether this can be done and I admire that he's shown a lot of initiative.

"I was disappointed with the seven per cent, as the council and community know, and I think anything that I could do to help those people out there who are struggling I needed to do."

Council also agreed that the reduction in the rate in the dollar from seven per cent to six per cent be covered by a subsequent reduction in the transfer to reserve to cover future calls in the Defined Benefits Superannuation Scheme.