Sewerage doubt wafts despite reduced cost

A Hihi resident is relieved a proposed sewerage charge of almost $2000 a year has been halved - but questions remain because locals believe they paid off their sewerage scheme in the 1990s.

The Far North District Council had proposed sweeping changes to the way it calculated rates, but councillors voted last week to delay most of the changes after an outcry from the forestry and dairy farming sectors.

They did decide to proceed with a proposal for "user-pays" sewerage charges - albeit it with the biggest increases watered down. The annual total sewerage charge in Hihi, for example, drops from $1910 to $876.

Hihi retiree Rhys Davies said many townsfolk on fixed incomes or with young families would be relieved ... "but a lot of people will still be unhappy. I'm not sure they're going to let it go."

Hihi residents believed they had paid for their sewerage plant - in 1993 they had the choice of a one-off $753 or $200 a year over seven years - but now have been told it still has to be paid for via the new "user-pays" capital charge.

"What we're asking is, what happened to that money? The people here believed they had paid it off."

Sentiments in Russell were similar, although the difference between the initial proposal and the final figure ($1387 vs $1069) was less dramatic.

Russell Protection Society chairman Bob Drey said questions remained about how the council came up with the numbers. "The way we calculate it, we already repaid the capital cost by 2004."

In 2005 the council was unable to provide figures to the Auditor-General to back up its Russell sewerage charges, because its accounting system was unable to itemise costs beyond the initial $3.5 million loan, Mr Drey said. "If that was the case in 2005, how can they have suddenly assigned costs to Russell in 2012?"

Far North District Council spokesman Richard Edmondson said many submitters to the draft Long Term Plan believed their scheme's loan debts had been paid off. However, resource consents had to be renewed roughly every 10 years and the Government's increasing environmental standards kept generating new capital costs.

Total sewerage rates for Far North towns, comparing the draft Long-Term Plan 2012-22 initial figures and those in final plan adopted last week. The figures are made up of a capital rate and a uniform $374 operating rate: Ahipara initial $788/final $679; Awanui $628/$905; East Coast $715/$648; Hihi $1910/$876; Kaeo $1272/$1074; Kaikohe $709/590; Kaitaia $628/$616; Kawakawa $927/$1048; Kerikeri $846/$770; Kohukohu $971/$929; Opononi $733/$676; Paihia $875/$750; Rangiputa $743/$674; Rawene $992/$925; Russell $1387/$1069; Whangaroa $783/$825; Whatuwhiwhi $811/$$756.

The final plan has to be signed off and may still change.