A man who helped to build the "House for 65 Roses" thinks it was "rich" of the Napier City Council not to waive the $1400 building permit fee for the new home which will be sold to raise funds for cystic fibrosis sufferers in Hawke's Bay. Aaron Martin said he washelping to build the house when Lans Hasselman, who started the project, told him he had to go to the Napier City Council for a permit. "I was with him when he said 'I am going to get the permit from the council'. "He said 'they're going to charge me $1400.' "I said that does not seem fair, being a charity." Mr Martin said he thought it was "rich" of the council to charge the fee. He said if the council waived the fee then $1400 more could go to the cystic fibrosis fund. "I worked on it for nothing and so did Lans and so did a lot of other people who did not get paid." Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott said she sympathised with Mr Martin's view but the council could not make an exception. "We can only do so much and the point is 85 per cent of our building inspectors' work is user pays, so it's pretty difficult to ask ratepayers to give to a charity they might not need to." Mr Hasselman said it would have been nice for the council to waive the fee but understood why it could not. He said the council had been supportive of his efforts and had sent down a building inspector straight away when he requested it. The "House for 65 Roses" will go under the auctioneer's hammer on Sunday at 2pm at Mitre 10 Mega, on Napier's Prebensen Drive.
