Ōtumoetai man Rick Greig has had his pool for 20 years. Photo / Samantha Motion
Ōtumoetai man Rick Greig has had his pool for 20 years. Photo / Samantha Motion
Swimming pool owners are revolting against a new Tauranga City Council inspection fee.
The council has started charging pool owners $157.30 for a compulsory inspection, to be conducted every three years.
The council was required to do the inspections under rules the Government added to the Building Act in 2017to ensure pool areas were safe for unsupervised children under 5.
The council did the first round of inspections for free but in July it started invoicing - and some of the city's 2654 pool owners are not happy about it.
Pool owners Rick Greig of Ōtumoetai and Don Sweet of Mount Maunganui said they would challenge the inspection fee and refuse to pay.
"What's next? Someone from the council will come along and say 'we have to inspect your front door to make sure it shuts' and charge you $160."
Sweet, a lawyer, said he did not believe the council had taken the right steps to be able to charge a fee, including consultation.
The council could only charge a fee when it was providing a service.
He argued the legislation put the onus on councils to ensure pools were inspected and therefore the council should pay as its service was to itself.
"The council isn't providing me a service at all, it is simply obeying the law."
The legislation says: "Every territorial authority must ensure that the following residential pools within its jurisdiction are inspected at least once every three years, within six months before or after the pool's anniversary date, to determine whether the pool has barriers that comply with the requirements of [rules for barriers restricting access to unsupervised children under 5]."
Sweet said it would be a different story if the legislation had, for example, required pool owners to hold a current inspection certificate. Then the council inspections would be a service to help pool owners stay compliant with the law.
He said it was a good thing to inspect pools and make sure they were safe for children, but the council could not just "invent a fee for it".
The Tauranga City Council administration building in Willow St. Photo / File
Barbara Dempsey, the council's regulatory and compliance general manager said the fee was set in the fees and charges policy in 2018, which went out of public consultation as required.
The council also tried to bring in a one-off retrospective $134.20 "pool registration fee" but it was scrapped after pool owners complained.
She said the council had the authority to charge the fee "as part of the legal requirements under the Building Act".
"As this is a service required and limited to pool owners it is reasonable that they, not the general ratepayer pay for that service.
"Since invoicing began, only three pool owners have queried the fee. None have refused to pay.
She said New Zealand had one of the highest fatal drowning rates in the OECD.
"The majority of pool owners understand, appreciate and support the reason for these inspections – to help protect our communities from preventable drownings."
Tauranga's 2654 pools, at $160 per inspection, totalled $425,640 every three years.
The Western Bay of Plenty District Council charged $180 per inspection.
Tauranga pool inspections
- 2654 residential pools - 274 inspected since July - 188 were compliant - 88 needed work or an inspection time booked.
