South Wairarapa council targets users

South Wairarapa district councillors unanimously approved a new schedule of fees at its monthly meeting on Wednesday,

Fee hikes for building consents, dog registration and many other council services have been approved.

South Wairarapa district councillors unanimously approved a new schedule of fees at its monthly meeting on Wednesday, which proposes the costs of services to come from individual users instead of continuing to come from the ratepayer.

Planning and environment group manager Murray Buchanan said it wasn't extra income for the council.

"We are substituting one form of income for another, it's not new income, it's simply saving on rates.

"I think that's a really important point to make ... it's not money grabbing."

Many of the fees had not changed for three or more years.

The council found the existing fees did not cover the actual costs of providing the services and didn't align with its funding policy, which outlines the public-private benefit split.

Under the schedule, fees will be more than doubled for urgent land information memorandum (LIM) reports, to $450.

Council officers were under pressure processing LIMs, which was caused by a strong trend of people applying for urgent LIMs.

The council believed this was because there was not much of a cost difference between the existing urgent fee of $255, and the non-urgent fee, at $188.

The fees proposed for non-urgent applications was $250.

SWDC does not have the information needed for LIMs in digital files so staff have to physically search for hard copy files and go through them.

Council also approved an investigation into providing public notification services on its website for alcohol licensing applications, as an alternative to newspaper publications.

Deputy mayor Viv Napier said it would help a lot of organisations and speed up the process.

Council also approved new fees for people applying for planning and building certificates, swimming pool fence inspections, right of way certificates and RMA certificates.

The new fees would take effect from July this year and will be included in the 2015-2025 Long Term Plan which will be open for public consultation soon.