Far North to have say on council water rates plan

Kaitāia's water treatment plant treats all water the same and FNDC wants all ratepayers to pay a fair share of water rates. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Far North residents will get to have their say on the council’s proposed water rating equalisation scheme on Thursday.

The council wants to move to district-wide water and wastewater rating to share increasing costs among communities. Some ratepayers will end up paying more for their water and wastewater services under the proposed change.

At present in the Far North, the council’s targeted rates for water and wastewater services are different depending on which scheme a property is connected to. For example, residents in Rāwene pay a different rate from those in Kerikeri for their water infrastructure.

Residents will be making oral submissions to councillors about the proposal after the Far North District Council (FNDC)’s Thursday meeting in Kaikohe – on the eve of the last working day ahead of Good Friday.

FNDC’s 13-week public consultation ended on February 16 with oral submissions to follow. Thursday’s oral submissions have not been publicly advertised.

“The meeting is not publicly advertised as it is not part of the formal council meeting,” a council spokesperson said.

Local Democracy Reporting asked FNDC whether the oral submissions would open to the public, or whether the public was excluded. The council was also asked whether the notes in support of each oral submission were to be made publicly available. It was also asked whether submissions from the entire 13-week public consultation as a whole would be made public.

FNDC was unable to respond to these four questions by the time of writing.

FNDC Ngā Tai o Tokerau Māori Ward councillor Tāmati Rākena said earlier that under the new proposal everyone using council water and wastewater services would pay a universal rate for doing so, whichever council scheme they used. Property owners would only be charged the universal rate for the services they were connected to.

As a result, some ratepayers would see water and wastewater rates increase, he said.

Others could see water and wastewater rates reduce.

Rākena said property owners who could access council water and wastewater services but chose not to would continue to pay the council’s current reduced ‘availability’ rate. This might however change under the proposal.

■ Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air