At the time, the levy model was not able to be introduced because of legal reasons, Musson said.
Members of the Whanganui Roading Alliance spoke about the cost of forestry-related road damage at a workshop about the council’s Long Term Plan earlier this month.
Downer operations manager Brendon Walker used Longacre Rd as an example, saying logging started there in May and by September, the road had quite seriously deteriorated.
Repairing roads because of forestry-related damage cost $416,681 for the 2022/23 financial year.
The current targeted rate for exotic forestry was set six years ago.
According to the council’s 2023/24 funding impact statement, a targeted rate on exotic forestry properties will collect $155,250 for remediating roads used by vehicles associated with plantations in the district.
That is based on a rate of 0.11756 cents per dollar of a property’s capital value.
Whanganui Rural Community Board chairman David Wells said he supported the levy model, but a targeted rate was currently “the only tool available”.
He said discussions about forestry rates had been going on for at least eight years but, as far as he was aware, nothing had been done in terms of lobbying or advocating for change.
“What there is no doubt about is harvesting of the regional forests is causing significant cost to the ratepayer through the damage being done to the roads,” Wells said.
“It’s about looking for an equitable way of covering that cost.”
Wells said one complication was forestry operators within the district who used only state highways.
“My understanding is that the biggest forestry ratepayer here doesn’t use council-maintained roads. All its roads go straight out on to State Highway 4.
“This isn’t a simple fix by any means.”
Musson said targeted rates were “a blunt instrument” and they disincentivised people to invest in forestry.
Rates were collected on forestry properties for 25 years, and there was very little demand on council infrastructure during that time, he said.
“For us, it’s the wrong lever.
“We’ve offered solutions in the past, and if that [levy] had been implemented, the council would have had millions of dollars since that point.
“You can work with council and the alliance and say, ‘Right, what is the road spend for next year?’ It’s road spend divided by [logging] volume - that’s your levy.”
Farmer, geologist and forestry consultant Ian Moore said any decision required careful consideration and there needed to be more discussions between council officers and the industry itself, which was complex.
Moore completed a survey for the council that mapped out forestation in the district and timeframes of when harvests were due.
“A levy needs to be acceptable - and that’s the fine line,” Moore said.
“You can’t impose one without liaising and looking at all the parameters that should contribute to it.
“The industry isn’t just a farmer growing trees. It’s everyone, from those valuable, hard-working people who plant them, cut them down and harvest them - then there are the truckies and the mills. It’s an intricate network of different contributing factors.”
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
