WHANGAREI - The boat industry is crying foul over a Whangarei District Council suggestion that all boats be registered.
The Boating Industries Association has come out strongly against a recommendation in a district council report that the council, the Northland Regional Council and other interested groups lobby the Government to introduceregistration of all boats.
The association's executive director, Peter Busfield, said the reason for the recommendation seemed to be to raise money.
However, the Whangarei District Council's community enterprises manager, Eric Scott, who made the recommendation, said he was trying to devise a system of paying for the upkeep of navigational aids that was fair to all boaties.
The Whangarei District Council and the Northland Regional Council have been embroiled in a row over new navigation fees which took effect last July under a regional council bylaw.
Under the bylaw, the regional council began charging individual mooring or berth holders $45 (plus GST) annually, the money to be spent on navigation safety.
The move upset boaties and the district council, which owns marinas at the Whangarei Town Basin, Kissing Pt and Tutukaka. The council argued that the bylaw was discriminatory because it targeted vessels that used marinas, but not others such as trailer boats.
In December, the regional council voted for a compromise that will see the charges cut from February 24. From then, individual mooring or berth owners will see their $45 fee cut to $30.
Marinas with more than 75 berths will see their existing $45 fee cut to $20 but marina organisations will have to collect the fee on the regional council's behalf.
Mr Scott said he wanted all boaties to pay the same amount.
He suggested that all interested groups, including local authorities, boaties and the boating industry, should work out a fair solution.
Mr Busfield said the boating association was "strongly opposed to registration of boats in order to raise a tax on boat owners."
"Boat owners already pay considerable additional [road user] tax when they purchase petrol [for their boats]."
