Whangarei District Council wants you to tell tales on your neighbours.

If you know a neighbour who is renting out a house or separate dwelling on their property you are to inform the council. The mayor and council called for this during a public meeting with business owners last year. Why?   

It's because last year the WDC decided to change the way they did the ratings on Whangarei properties and decided to increase the rates intake by changing the rating unit to be each dwelling, not each property. This increased the rate intake from the central business district (CBD) immensely. But the rates hike wasn’t confined to the CBD.

The council promised they would re-examine the rates hike this year, but now they’ve decided not to. This means the proposed rate increase for many businesses owners will continue.

I don’t own a CBD property, however this really disappoints me. The proposed Annual Plan hasn’t changed much from the original Long Term Plan proposed last year. It's going to bring a rates rise of 2% beyond inflation.  Where it has changed is that the plan is inferring that the reason the rates are going up this year is because the Council lost the sale of the Old Boys Land. The costs of the court case were well over $500,000 for legal fees on both sides, preparation of Council documentation and hiring commissioners. That cost is conspicuously absent in the friendly infographic attached with this article (although maybe the cost should be filed under “solid waste.”) The infographic is entitled ‘How we spend each dollar’ although perhaps a better title would have been ‘How we MIS-spend each dollar.’

Who ends up paying these sorts of bills? We do, as usual. The council has not taken responsibility for proceeding with the court case, which was plainly the wrong path. WDC has made the wrong call on changes to the Annual Plan and is expecting the ratepayers to nark on their neighbours, generate rates and pick up the bill. 

Bring on the October election I say. Let’s hope some business-minded people bring change.