Auckland Council to fine ‘time wasters’
Auckland Council is cracking down on residents who refuse to cooperate with its demands.
Last week Auckland Council’s regulatory committee agreed to impose an hourly charge of $159 on offenders who failed to comply with its compliance team.
Auckland Council regulatory services respond to 120,000 compliance requests each year and demand is increasing. In 2016 it rose by 17 per cent due to more resource management breaches and noise complaints.
The compliance fee will cover investigations into a wide array of compliance issues including residential building compliance, whether animals like goats or chickens could be kept in central city homes, noise issues, deck height and size issues and lawn length.
Up until now these costs fell on the ratepayers, except for a few pollution incidents or when the offending party had a resource consent being monitored.
Auckland Council regulatory compliance manager Steve Pearce said the changes, based on a polluter pay’s principle, were for the public good.
‘‘We’ve looked at it and thought actually why should the ratepayers pay for offenders who have done something wrong,’’ Pearce said.
‘‘The offender should be paying for the stuff that’s breaking the rules. It’ll deter them from dragging the chain. If they’re being charged an hourly rate we hope they’ll think twice about doing so.’’
Previously, those who obtained resource consent were charged for the cost of investigations as part of the council’s compliance monitoring programme, while those who did not seek approval were not charged and instead that cost was met by the ratepayer, he said. The $159 fee was based on how much it cost Auckland Council to investigate, and of the 20,000 investigations his team carried out about 1000 of them each year would result in a charge, meaning it could bring in about $150,000, he said.
‘‘We don’t end up making money. But the idea of this tool is that enables us to deal with complex, challenging issues. It’s a way to convince them to comply.’’
Councils across the country had similar rules in place, Pearce said.
The charge should be live by July.