Article 6 Business ratepayers
A business ratepayer (hereinafter referred to as a ratepayer) is a person:–
whose name appears on the Valuation Roll for the Shetland Islands as prepared by the Orkney & Shetland Valuation Joint Board as at 1st April in the year prior to that in which there is an election to the Authority (or in the event of the unavailability of such Roll, the most recent available Roll) as being the owner or tenant responsible for paying business rates on a property or properties situated in Lerwick with an aggregate annual rateable value of at least £2,500,
who pays said business rates in full, and
who is not a statutory undertaking or an organisation having Charitable status or a club or unincorporated association or any other body, however constituted, whose main source of income or funding derives other than directly from trading or commerce.
A ratepayer may also be:–
the owner or the person leasing an agricultural farm of not less than 50 hectares situated in Lerwick, or
the holder of a works licence authorising that person to operate a marine farm located within the Harbour.
Where a ratepayer is an incorporated company or a firm, such company or firm may by 1st April 1999 and on each anniversary thereafter as shall occur in a year in which there is an election to the Authority, intimate in writing to the Authority the name of one of their members or partners whom they desire to be an elector and such member or partner so named shall qualify to be an elector and Member. In the event of any incorporated company or firm appearing in said Valuation Roll as the owner or tenant of a property or properties with an aggregate annual rateable value of £5000 or more then the company or firm may intimate the names of two members or partners to qualify as electors and Members.
At each revaluation of the rateable value of business properties the sums of £2500 and £5000 mentioned in article 6(1) and (3) shall be re-assessed, retained, increased or decreased by the Authority in accordance with any changes in the Retail Price Index, as published by the Office of National Statistics which have occurred in said Index from the position in which it stood as at the date of the immediately preceding revaluation and the Authority shall arrange for the resultant figures to be published in a newspaper circulating in the Shetland Islands.
A ratepayer, other than an incorporated company or a firm, is qualified to be an elector and a Member.
The Authority, its officials and employees shall not qualify as ratepayers.
The following persons shall not qualify as ratepayers:
The Council;
Any company or body wholly owned or controlled by the Council.