Angry ratepayers get their meeting

By CLAIRE TREVETT and BERNARD ORSMAN

Ratepayers angry with Auckland Regional Council rate rises have a chance to take their case to councillors.

Under pressure from a group of councillors, ARC chairwoman Gwen Bull has called an extraordinary meeting of the council to discuss its rates.

But a technical glitch meant it was not exactly the meeting the councillors had hoped for.

Mike Lee, Paul Walbran, Sandra Coney, Michael Barnett and Craig Little yesterday tried to use their powers under the new Local Government Act to call a meeting for Monday morning.

Last night Mrs Bull called the meeting for Wednesday under her own name.

Mr Lee said Mrs Bull was playing "childish" games and had apparently sidelined their request because of a "technical matter" in their failure to allow three working days' notice of the meeting.

Mrs Bull's new requisition also allowed her to remove one item of business the five councillors wanted - a request for the chairman of Glenfield Ratepayers, David Thornton, to address the council.

"It is just reckless," Mr Lee said. "It seems extraordinary that they would go to that end to manipulate a fairly simple situation of allowing some democratic expression."

The special meeting on Wednesday at 2pm was to get legal advice on ways to grant relief to residential ratepayers, including changes to payment dates, payment methods and penalty charges.

It would also get legal advice on the feasibility of resetting rates. Council officers would present reports on the technical and financial issues involved in relief measures and any resetting of the rates.

The council is increasing its total rates take by 34 per cent. The highest known individual rate increase is 657 per cent. While the rates of homeowners have increased, business rates have fallen because the council has changed the differential between residential and business sectors.



Pressure to intervene has also gone on the Minister of Local Government, Chris Carter, who confirmed he had received a request from a member of the public.

The Department of Internal Affairs would assess whether the request was valid.

If the assessment could make a case for a failure by the council to meet its obligations, mismanagement of resources, or deficiencies in management or decision-making, he would decide whether intervention was necessary.

Act finance spokesman Rodney Hide said Mr Carter should do the review and should cap the rates increases councils could impose.

"On 30 June 2003, he promised New Zealanders that his new Local Government Act 2002 would make it harder for councils to increase rates without good reason. He made the promise. He must now review what has happened."

But Mr Carter said his powers to intervene were limited.

"The legislation sets a high threshold for council mismanagement that must be reached before a minister of local government can even consider intervening.

"It has been met only once in about 25 years."

Meanwhile, North Shore Grey Power is holding a meeting on the rating issue today at the North Harbour Netball Stadium in Northcote Rd at 1.30pm.

President Alan McCulloch said the meeting would discuss ARC and council rates as well as GST on rates, which he said was a punitive "tax on a tax". Finance Minister Michael Cullen told Parliament last week he supported retaining GST on rates.

* Special meeting: 2pm on Wednesday August 13

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