SOME Aucklanders will swim in their local pools free again this summer - but most will have to keep paying as the Auckland Council struggles to adopt consistent policies across the region.
The former Manukau City Council offered free swimming at its six civic pools before amalgamation, while other authorities charged up to $7.80 per swim.
The new council expected to complete a study into adopting the free-pools policy last March. It says that will now take at least until Easter Weekend - 12 months longer.
In the meantime existing charges will remain in place until at least 2012.
The council is also working to bring greater consistency to a range of council charges and services, including rubbish collection and dog registration charges and services.
It is also working towards streamlining resource management fees within its boundaries.
Discrepancies remain between licensing, service and planning fees. For example:
A brothel licence in Auckland City costs $668. In Manukau, it costs $246.
A mobile ice-cream vendor on the North Shore will be charged $223 a month; in the old Auckland City it's a mouthwatering $849 a month.
When he became mayor a year ago Len Brown said he wanted to carry across his former city's policy of not charging for entry to all civic swimming pools.
However then-Waitakere City mayor Bob Harvey told The Aucklander before the amalgamation that if West Auckland's main pool complex, West Wave, was to become free, demand would increase and the complex would probably need to add an extra pool.
The Auckland Council was unable to comment whether it had considered increasing the services on offer at paid-entry pools.
Nor could it provide an estimate of the cost to ratepayers of introducing free swimming across Auckland.
So while inconsistencies remain, the most notable discrepancies can be seen between the suburb of Mt Albert.
There, each dip at the aquatic centre costs an adult $7.80 and a child $5.70.
In the southern suburbs of Mangere, Otara, Papatoetoe and Howick ... it's free.
The only free option for children in central Auckland is the Grey Lynn paddling pool, a shallow outdoor pool open from December to March.
Inorganic rubbish presents another set of rules that differ across the region.
Central Auckland, Manukau and North Shore will have completed their annual inorganic rubbish collection by December.
In West Auckland and Waiheke a user-pays system is still enforced but that will be reviewed when all New Zealand councils are required to update their waste management and minimisation plans by July 1, 2012.
Dog licences are under review as the new council still enforces the various policies and bylaws of the region's former councils.
To continue to meet the increased cost of providing these services and facilities, some fees and charges have increased by an average 3.8 per cent to cover the cost of inflation.
