Some smaller quarries would likely close, meaning that metal would have to be transported over greater distances, adding further to the cost. That increased cost would be paid by customers, which in the district council's case was the ratepayer. The council, therefore, would face higher costs with no increase in total rates revenue.
The potential closure of some smaller quarries, that would inevitably be rendered uneconomic by massive rate increases, would mean trucks would be travelling longer distances over council roads, adding further to the cost of the metal and also increasing the road repair bill.
"There will be huge increases in cartage costs if this plan is adopted," David Bellingham said.
"There's no way of getting around that. Under this proposal our rates bill could increase by $526,585, and in a lot of cases it will be the ratepayers who pay that. Any rate reductions for other property owners that might arise from this proposed system will be lost because they will have to pay more to meet the council's increased costs."
(The winners under the proposed system will be the owners of commercial and industrial land; according to Towai forest owner Werner Pospiech, the average residential ratepayer would benefit by $8 per annum).
The flaws went much further than that, however. Don Bellingham said the council had identified 32 quarries in the district, when by his calculations there were 50 or 60, some of them operating illegally.
He had no problem with quarries that were being used only to provide material for the properties on which they were situated not being included in the new rating proposal, but all that were exporting material off the immediate property had to be included. Failing to do that would leave those who were paying more at a significant commercial disadvantage.
Levying all qualifying quarries would also reduce the added costs applied for those that had been identified.
"We know there are new quarry operations that are not on the council's list. Nor are they in the district plan, therefore they are operating illegally under the council's policy, whereby any quarry selling products for commercial gain is required to have FNDC resource consents," he said.
"Council staff have known about some of these quarries but have not investigated or processed them (according to correspondence dating back to 2010).
"Quotable Value has not made any attempt to revalue the properties now operating as quarries, so many continued to be rated as lifestyle, livestock etc.
"How is it that Quotable Value and the (council's) rates department have not referred to the zone maps in the district plan zoned minerals to update their records, which have been available since 2000?
"And why was the figure of $28,000 (per quarry) printed when the 'fairer rates system' was always going to be determined by land value? The information provided for this publication can only be described as incorrect and misleading."
Calculating rates on quarries by land value was bizarre, he added. There was no correlation between the value of a property and the amount of damage that was being done to roads by heavy vehicles, and therefore the rating demands made on those properties in order to meet their share of repair costs.
In Bellingham Quarries' case the great majority of heavy vehicle movements involved other carriers, so the company itself was in fact responsible for very little road wear and tear.
"Quarries don't cause road damage, heavy traffic does," Mr Bellingham said.
"And each and every one of those vehicles that are doing damage are paying road user charges in recognition of that. This issue is more about road user charges and how much of that revenue comes back to the Far North than it is about quarry operators getting away with paying less than their fair share."
