Association saves dollars for ratepayers

The Kerikeri Ratepayers’ Association has won a refund and significant savings for ratepayers. Errors made by the Northland Regional Council and Far North District Council were missed by senior executives, by elected representatives AND by Audit NZ. It was only a member of our committee who identified errors and pointed them out to each council.

Firstly by alerting staff and then, in the case of FNDC, when staff didn’t act, by submissions to the Long Term Plan. The NRC accepted their mistake and will refund about 2600 ratepayers on the midnorth bus route just under $50 they ought never to have been charged.

Having alerted FNDC of mistakes in both method and in calculations, it was only after Audit was forced by us to take another look, that the FNDC took steps to correct some of the errors.

The FNDC 2018-28 Draft Long Term Plan proposed the Kerikeri Sewerage Capital Rate for 2018-19 at $983.92 per connection and additional pan. This was reduced to $443.46 in the final LTP adopted June 28. As totals, a $1,465,253 rate-take went down to $665,547. This reduction of $799,706 cannot be attributed to the rigour of a NZ Audit, but was entirely the result of competent analysis by a member of our KRA Committee. The final rate to be charged on affected ratepayers is 45.4 per cent of what had originally been intended. We have a volunteer to thank for that.

While the FNDC staff report to council on June 28 stated this correction was as a result of an Audit query, the fact is Audit only became involved after we alerted them that the FNDC had did not accepted our submissions to the Long Term Plan.

The association has much more to do. We invite all ratepayers to the AGM, July 19, 7pm at Cornerstone Community Centre (cnr Heritage Bypass and Kerikeri Rd).

JANE JOHNSTON Kerikeri Ratepayers’ Association

Secretary