Brian Kelly: Sound of camel's back caving in

So it appears ratepayers, are about to be hit in the pocket again by the Tauranga City Council, this time over water charges.

The council proposes to double the fixed water charge to $52 a year and add 11 cents to the volumetric rate charged through the meter.

Enough, I say, and I think as citizens who bear the brunt of these charges we should all stand up and make our feelings felt. For a start, it's another cost of living increase that just gets added to the long list and it's not as though our income is keeping up with all the price rises. Higher petrol and diesel costs, increased insurance and ACC levies, electricity rises, not to mention the toll increase on route K. The list goes on and now the council throws this one into the mix.

And the main reason is a combination of the recession and a succession of wet summers, which means that revenue from the council's water meters is falling. The deficit has apparently been partly driven by the recession, in which households and industry have been watching costs.

Here I was, thinking that was a good thing.

By not using the valuable resource that is water, aren't we doing the right thing? Saving the environment and all that. But the council looks at it differently. The planned increase in water charges is to recover the money lost.

According to City Water's general manager, the council was on track to lowering the peak demand for water to 450 litres per person per day, down from the old high of 703 litres. Brilliant. But our council doesn't look at it that way.

Well done to Tauranga businessman Maurice O'Reilly for leading the charge against the proposed rise. We should all support him. As a city ratepayer, I've had enough of increased charges being forced on us. It's not as though our wages are keeping up with these increases. In many cases a lot of residents are on fixed retirement incomes and charges like this just eat away at their savings.

I agree with Mr O'Reilly that it was wrong for the council to charge more for water when there had been more rain in recent years. The rationale was also unfair on low water users.

Mr O'Reilly is not the only one voicing his opinion. It's been interesting reading your comments on the Bay of Plenty Times website.

One comment caught my attention. It was from someone calling himself or herself 4th estate.

It read: "I think council needs to be shown who's actually in charge.

"I can see a massed demonstration in Red Square and Mr Crosby dragged from his office to face the mob.

"It's time those in council understood that we've had enough of the endless increases in rates and other charges - try doing more with less like the rest of us."

Good call, although I'm not quite sure about dragging Mr Crosby out of his office. At the end of the day, the mayor and councillors are ratepayers, too, and they face the same charges that every citizen faces, but we do need to make our feelings known.

What I also don't understand is, with the growth in the area in the past few years, surely that would have increased council income from water charges?

Or doesn't it work like that?

It is interesting to note that just down the road in Rotorua there are no water meters, just the water charges as part of the annual rates, and Rotorua is not the only big city in New Zealand without meters.

As ratepayers or city dwellers, let's stand up and say to the city council we've had enough of increased charges being forced on us from all quarters.