Submission on the Whakatane District Council proposed fees and charges for 2022/23
Federated Farmers has recently submitted to Whakatāne District Council on proposed changes to fees and charges for 2022/23 which can be found here: Fees and Charges Proposal for 2022/23 | Whakatāne District Council (whakatane.govt.nz)
The increase is largely due to a 2.2% increase to the budget for the upcoming financial year, which WDC is proposing to fund through increases to some fees and charges. WDC has kept its commitment to a 6.93% rates increase as proposed in the Long Term Plan for 2021-2031.
We noted however that any increase in rates contributions disproportionately impacts our members, and the sustainability of rates is a concern for our farming community. Out of the options for consideration, we were supportive of Option 1 - increases to fees for specific activities (including building consents, Whakatāne transfer station fees for tyres and rubbish, and land information memorandums), as compared to increasing fees by a smaller amount across a broader range of activities and services. We made a point that we did not want to see rural rubbish dumping increase because of fees, but did not want to unfairly burden general rate payers for a user pays service. We recommended that a different activity should considered for increase, or alternatively a small increase to transfer station fees in conjunction with a small increase to fees for another area, such as animal control or resource management charges. We recommended that the user pays aspect be capped at 60% to encourage development in the community.
Our full submission can be reviewed on the right.
For further enquires please contact:
Darryl Jensen
T: 07 533 1300
M: 021 332216
E:[email protected]