Stratford District Council: Pool fees, quake upgrades and rent increases under discussion

Wai o Rua - Stratford Aquatic Centre. Photo/ Alyssa Smith

An unplanned order of pizza was on the agenda of Stratford District Council’s Policy and Services meeting last week, after elected members spent over 12 hours in council chambers on Tuesday last week.

Mayor Neil Volzke says he doesn’t remember another instance of an evening meal being required for a Stratford District Council meeting, saying this was “an incredibly rare event, possibly even the first time”.

Elected members had started their day at 9am with a series of workshops running until 2.45pm, as they worked through budgets in readiness for the upcoming Long Term Plan consultation.

The workshops covered a range of topics including three waters budgets and projects - which are now back under local government responsibility topics after the coalition Government indicated plans to repeal the three waters legislation.

Economic development was the subject of another workshop, as were proposed fees and charges for Wai o Rua Stratford Aquatic Centre. Suggestions made by councillors in the fees and charges workshop were then fed into the discussions in the afternoon’s policy and services meeting in which councillors made recommendations on those fees to be taken to the next Ordinary Council meeting before going out to the public as part of the upcoming Long Term Plan consultation.

After the series of workshops finished at 2.45, councillors took a 15-minute break before returning to their seats in council chambers for the policy and services meeting, with 13 decision reports on the agenda, as well as several other reports to be received and discussed.

By 8pm a decision was made to order some pizza, which councillors ate at their desks while continuing to discuss and debate their way through the reports in front of them.

At 9pm, meeting chair Min Mackay proposed the meeting be adjourned at the next sensible point, in line with Local Government standing orders that state a meeting’s maximum duration should be six hours, including any breaks, unless members vote to allow the meeting to continue. Her colleagues agreed and at 9.23 the meeting was adjourned until the following Tuesday.

Speaking after the meeting, mayor Neil Volzke said despite the meeting length, councillors had remained focused on the work to be done.

“Elected members were remarkably fresh considering the meeting went for so long and everyone had been lumbered with a huge volume of preparation reading in the days before. I think people got their second wind and the debate was as strong at the end of the meeting as it was at the start, all issues were fully discussed.”

Amongst the decisions made during the meeting, all of which will need to be confirmed at the next full council meeting before going out to consultation, was to increase the targeted roading rate applied to exotic forestry owners.

In a report to the meeting council’s director of corporate services Tiffany Radich proposed expanding the application of the targeted rate to include properties that aren’t currently classified as exotic forestry under land information rules, but did have areas of more than 10ha of exotic forestry on the land.

Councillors agreed to the expansion of the application of the targeted rate as well as to increasing the total amount collected by it by $100,000, taking it to $350,000. With the proposed additional properties included, the rate would work out to a 4.4 per cent increase in the roading rate for exotic forestry properties, should the general roading rate be increased by the planned 10 per cent.

The $350,000 which would then be recouped did not fully cover the extra money spent by council on repairing the district’s roads that had been damaged by logging trucks, the report stated.

Deputy mayor Min MacKay said the damage to roads from forestry meant other roading work in the district wasn’t being done.

“We are using money from our overall roading budget......to do emergency work.”

Councillor Steve Beck asked if there was an alternative.

“Can we put a premium on... if you are going to log in the winter because that’s when most of the damage is done. That means a farmer and a contractor weighs up the premium against doing it?”

Chief executive Sven Hanne said some councils did close roads in certain seasons.

“The problem is these roads still serve as residential access as well, so we can’t close them....our system is very, very blunt and very, very restrained in what we can do....we can’t put a tonnage limit on as that would stop farms getting fertiliser and things.”

Councillors also elected to increase the current rental cost of council’s 10 one-bedroom pensioner units from the current rate of 40 per cent of market rate to 80 per cent. Current rents for the units range between $140 to $145 per week. The increase would be incremental for current tenants, councillors agreed, with annual increases of 10 per cent of market rent. New tenants would be charged at the 80 per cent of current market rate from the start.

Increases are also in the pipeline for some fees and charges at Wai o Rua Stratford Aquatic Centre.

Setting the fees and charges was up to elected members, said CEO Sven Hanne.

“It’s your decision, it’s your fees and charges,” he said, as councillors considered some proposed charges they had come up with in the morning’s workshop on the topic.

One hot topic, both in the workshop and the meeting, was the cost schools faced in booking the facility for swimming sports days and fun days.

Some schools had been put off using the pool for some events as they considered the cost prohibitive, but that depended on what they wanted to book - exclusive use or just lane hire, said aquatic team services leader Rennie Naicker in the workshop.

Councillor Grant Boyde said he thought the pool offered users good value for money.

“Our schools are very lucky for the price they are paying....I just wonder if it’s something that’s become too easy for the schools to jump up and down about, when I look around other places.....in Taranaki, our schools are pretty bloody well off for the sessions they get.”

Councillors provisionally agreed on some fee increases, including general entry for adults increasing by $1 to $6, and a child entry changing from $4 to $5. School group charges are also set to increase from $1.50 per pupil to $2.50, but instructor hire costs for school groups and private hire remain the same at $40 and $85 per hour respectively.

Councillors were keen to find a way to set a standard charge for school swimming sports, with councillor Erwood’s proposal of a $4 per child cost which would include lane hire for one swimming sports event per school per year, getting support from his colleagues.

Speaking after the meeting, CEO Sven Hanne said the decisions made on the fees and charges were still to be confirmed at a full council meeting and would also form part of the Long Term Plan consultation. Affected groups would also be consulted with, he said, including local schools.

Mayor Neil Volzke said the Long Term Plan consultation gives people the opportunity to give their feedback.

“I hope the community understands the importance of the Long Term Plan and how much work goes into drafting the document. Once it goes out for public consultation I really encourage people to get involved and give us the feedback we need to ensure we end up with a robust plan that sets the future direction of the district.”

While he doesn’t foresee a repeat pizza order being required in the meantime, Neil said there are still some big discussions coming.

“There are still some lengthy discussions to be had. We have a deadline to meet and still have matters to resolve. We just need to keep going until the job is done. It is as simple as that.”

Disclaimer: Editor Ilona Hanne is married to the CEO of Stratford District Council