Millions in cash held with Qtown council

Councillors were told of the "multimillion-dollar" balance of unclaimed street frontage bonds sitting in a council bank account from the past six years.

If you’ve lodged a Queenstown building consent recently, you might be eligible for some of the more than $2 million in unclaimed cash.

At a Queenstown Lakes District Council meeting yesterday, councillors were told of the ‘‘multimillion-dollar’’ balance of unclaimed bonds sitting in a council bank account from the past six years.

With each building consent lodged, an up to $1000 bond had to be paid in case of any damage incurred to street frontage while building work was carried out.

In a report to council, planning practice manager Blair Devlin said damage done usually amounted to less than the bond cost and people never bothered to reclaim what was left of the bond.

Auditors had raised concerns about the growing balance, the report says.

In adopting Devlin’s fee schedule proposal, the council confirmed all unclaimed bonds greater than six years old would be transferred to roading revenue as of June 30.

Adopting the proposal also meant the present street frontage bond system was abolished and replaced with a policy where the council recovers damage costs when or if they occur.

The policy to turn unclaimed bonds over six years old into roading revenue was adopted in March 2001 so anyone with bonds older than that will not be able to claim it.

The bonds were one item in a raft of fee changes proposed in the Queenstown Lakes District Draft Annual Plan, which was unanimously voted on as ready to put out today.

Other changes included a $215 monitoring charge added to every land use consent category instead of charging for monitoring after the job was complete, and resource management and building consent fee schedules.

An average is also on the cards for Queenstown Lakes District as is permanent chlorination of Arrowtown, Arthur’s Point, Glenorchy, Hawea and Luggate water supplies, which are also out for public consultation as part of the Draft Annual Plan.

The consultation April 28. for public consultation from period closes on