Forestry owners on road to bigger bill
After reporting a five-year spend of nearly $1.5 million on repairing roads damaged by logging trucks, a Taranaki council is looking to charge forestry owners more to save ratepayers footing the bill.
The Stratford District Council said costs to repair the unsealed roads in eastern Taranaki during forest harvest has averaged $292,120 a year, seeing other roading projects in the district grind to a halt.
Mayor Neil Volzke said it was an ‘‘almost critical situation’’, and something needed to be done.
‘‘The funds get sucked from every other project in the roading budgets,’’ Volzke said.
Last week, at a policy and services committee meeting, Stratford elected members moved to have a new roading targeted rate introduced for ‘‘exotic forestry’’ owners from July 1 to cover the cost of damage caused during harvesting.
The council intends to collect $100,000 annually, and the amount each forestry owner pays towards that is decided by their property’s capital value. This must be approved at an ordinary meeting of the council this month, before going out for public consultation.
NZ Forestry manages around 7000 hectares in the Stratford district, and on Friday company director and Taranaki regional manager, Cameron Eyre, said he already had a lot of questions.
‘‘Council can expect a very large pushback from the forest industry and some serious questions into their own process if they are going to propose this targeted rate,’’ Eyre said.
He said he was uncomfortable commenting fully, without seeing the report himself.
However, he said forestry owners would have questions about the council’s process to work out costs, or whether they were ‘‘simply just a passing on of all costs no matter if they are valid or not?’’.
‘‘What has the council done with the 25 years of rates forest owners have paid them while the roads are very quiet before harvest?’’
In last week’s meeting, Volzke said he knew the move would not be welcomed by forestry owners. ‘‘It’s inevitable what they’re going to say.’’
According to council calculations, if the targeted rate is approved, one forestry owner who owns a 4412ha block could see their rates jump from $4036 to $20,500.
But this would also see nonforestry property owners’ roading rates drop.
There are at least 29 exotic forestries in the Stratford district, and they pay ony 0.5 per cent – or $19,746 – of the total annual roading rates, a report to the council said.
An exotic forestry is land that is either in production, or available for planting, but does not include indigenous forests, or protected forests.
In the last financial year, just over $3 million was spent on the maintenance of Stratford roads – which equalled a total of $5064 per kilometre of road.
However, the average spend on unsealed roads damaged by logging trucks is around $20,000 per kilometre, per year.
This is currently funded by a targeted roading rate based on the capital value of all properties within the district, which is then subsidised by Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency.
Councillor Grant Boyde, who moved the motion at the meeting to set the annual rate at $100,000, raised concerns about how much extra certain forestry owners would have to pay.
‘‘But we’ve got to have starting point,’’ Boyde said.
‘‘It isn’t sustainable, ratepayers are paying a huge amount.’’
Deputy mayor and committee chairman Alan Jamieson agreed.
‘‘They need to pay their share,’’ Jamieson said.
‘‘But I think we might get a bit of pushback.’’
Most councillors spoke in favour of moving the targeted rate, except Rick Coplestone – calling it ‘‘a bit of a bird’s nest really’’.
‘‘It’s definitely a no-go,’’ Coplestone said. ‘‘I think we should actually park it – it needs a lot more thought.’’
Boyde argued against that, saying: ‘‘Something has to be done.’’ a