Surf Life Saving New Zealand says it is now stuck between a rock and a hard place because Northern Regional Council has allocated its money for the wrong kind of service.
Northern Region manager Matt Williams said a good outcome from the NRC's new Emergency Services Fund allocation would have been to get enough money to offer a sustainable life saving service.
At the very least, the NRC should have listened and understood what the community needed after years of lobbying by Surf Life Saving New Zealand.
The NRC ignored information in the submission Surf Life Saving put in for the new contestable $900,000 fund, Mr Willams said. Instead, the NRC went off on a tangent and made its own decision to put the fund toward paying guards already paid for by the regional life saving organisation, he said.
NRC announced on Tuesday it would give Surf Life Saving $120,000 annually for three years to pay for professional guards at some Northland beaches - including Ruakaka, Waipu Cove and Ocean Beach - outside of volunteer patrol hours.
But the service had asked for money to support volunteer patrols, Mr Williams said. Professional guards at some popular beaches are already paid for by Surf Life Saving's Northern Region, he said.
NRC chairman Bill Shepherd said Surf Life Saving's allocation amounted to a 31 per cent increase in the combined funding it received last year from the NRC, Kaipara, Whangarei and Far North District Councils.
"In considering the application, the councillors were of the view that the provision of professional lifeguards at Northland's main beaches through the peak holiday period was the appropriate place for public funding to be utilised in order to give the ratepayers the best value for money," he said.
Mr Williams said Surf Life Saving itself is the best outfit to judge where money is most needed.
"We pitched our submission at a level to help save lives where it was most needed," he said.
"They've chosen not to listen, to completely ignore what the community needs most. The critical part of life saving is the volunteer service."
He said he was aware that complaining about the outcome looked like ingratitude, especially over what looked like a decent amount of money.
"But this isn't a hand-out, this is core business," he said of the fund.