Chris Southgate: Life here has so much to offer

Chris Southgate

I would like to clarify my remarks in my submission to the long term plan re the Dannevirke Business Hub.

The remarks were made in the context of a wider submission, in which I complimented the council on the rate increase profile going forward, which showed decreasing annual increases - significantly improved on the curve of former long term plans - and reminded them of the need to have rates increases in line with inflation, which is very low at the moment. A significant contribution to inflation is government charges at all levels.

I commended the council for the establishment of the Business Hub, which I considered to be a good idea, but any business unit needs to justify its existence and a business plan and reporting on its success from time to time will reassure ratepayers that this unit of the council's business is worthy of continuing support.

This is in light of yet another levy or targeted rate for industrial and commercial ratepayers in the hope of increasing economic development for the district. More businesses coming to town and greater economic activity benefits not only the business community but the whole district, because it increases the size of the local GDP.

So my point is: why should only commercial and industrial ratepayers have to wear this increase?

I would also like to respond to Ron Ashford's comment about Dannevirke rates being a killer. Mr Ashford is no different from any other ratepayer in considering that their rates are too high - we all think they are too high - but they are a fact of life.

It is also a fact that local rates are high because there are simply not enough ratepayers throughout Tararua District to spread the burden around. That is, in part, due to increasing central government regulation and compliance with a "one size fits all" administrative template, which means a small territorial authority such as Tararua District has to do a lot of things to make it compliant and there are simply not enough ratepayers to spread the burden.

I would also like to point out to Mr Ashford that embedded in local rates are water charges and wastewater disposal costs, which are in addition to the basic rate in Auckland.

Moreover, the cost of a residential property in Dannevirke is approximately one quarter of that in Auckland, it takes five minutes to get to work and there are no parking fees, compared with the commuters in Auckland who frequently spend an hour or more commuting to work, day and night.

Another benefit of living in Dannevirke is that the cost of joining a sporting club, service club, social club or special-interest club is a fraction of the cost of that in a big city.

We welcome you to Dannevirke, Ron, and hope you will encourage more of your friends to come here for all the above reasons, because more people mean more jobs and more economic activity in Dannevirke.

Clearly, if you only have to pay a quarter of the price of a house, you have a lot more disposable money for your business enterprise or other pursuits.

So bring them on: we need more people and we need to ram this home to an Auckland-centric Government, which seems to think a top-heavy economy with big Auckland sucking resources out of the rest of the country is good for us. We think otherwise.

- Chris Southgate is a Dannevirke ratepayer.

-Business and civic leaders, organisers, experts in their field and interest groups can contribute opinions. The views expressed here are the writer's personal opinion, and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz.