Some of Council’s fees and charges have increased to ensure we can maintain our district’s great community services and facilities, process applications, and carry out other obligations under government legislation.
Feedback received from more than a month of consultation with the community helped shape the new fees and charges schedule that was adopted by Councillors on Wednesday, 15 November.
Fees and charges help cover the cost of services or activities and are paid for by users of the service or facility. They are generally paid for by both commercial and non-commercial users. For example, members of the community pay a fee to use our swimming pool, and a developer or homeowner pays for a building consent.
Why did they need to change?
Like many districts and cities across Aotearoa New Zealand, Council has recently experienced an increase in costs due to high rates of inflation, rising interest rates and other nation and global factors. Because of these increasing costs, Council has undertaken a thorough review of its fees and charges for 2023 - 2024.
In some cases, fees have not increased in the last 5-10 years, which means rates have increased to cover these costs. We’re proposing increases to rebalance rates versus user pays ratios and cover current costs.
We are very mindful of the cost-of-living pressures on households and businesses, we’ve worked hard to ensure we can keep fees and charges as affordable and fair as they can be.
What are fees and charges?
User fees and charges are one of the ways Council can recover some of the costs of delivering an activity or service directly from those who use, and therefore benefit, from the activity or service.
Council sets fees and charges to share costs between ratepayers and the people using a particular service (user pays model). There is no perfect balance between the two, but generally where an activity has greater public good, such as our libraries and sport fields, a higher proportion of that activity will be funded by general rates.
Why are they changing?
Like many districts and cities across Aotearoa New Zealand, Council has recently experienced an increase in costs due to high rates of inflation, rising interest rates and other nation and global factors. Because of these increasing costs, Council has undertaken a thorough review of its fees and charges for 2023 - 2024.
In some cases, fees have not increased in the last 5-10 years, which means rates have increased to cover these costs. We’re proposing increases to rebalance rates versus user pays ratios and cover current costs.
We are very mindful of the cost-of-living pressures on households and businesses, and we’ve worked hard to ensure we can keep fees and charges as affordable and fair as they can be.