Napier rates debate: Services provided by council to Bay View residents in spotlight

Napier City councillor Keith Price at a campaign meeting in 2019 and now sharing the concerns of his Ahuriri Ward Bay View constituents about conditions of roads in their area. Photo / File

The Napier City Council expects to complete one of its longest-ever meetings when deliberation on the future rating structure resumes on Tuesday.

An extraordinary meeting to consider rates proposal the Revenue and Finance Policy started on Tuesday with the first of almost 30 appearances by submitters taking-up the right to present in-person.

Deliberations were adjourned at midday on Friday, taking the meeting into a 5th day when it resumes on Tuesday - likely to be "decision day," according to council media staff.

The meeting has been held in the large exhibition room of the War Memorial Centre, with the council still without a permanent home more than three years after the abandonment of its Civic Building at the end of 2017 after it failed earthquake-risk assessments.

Five public consultation meetings were held late last year, leading to submissions from ratepayers, of whom almost 30 took up the right to present in-person during the hearing.

The council proposes a re-ordering of rating differentials, and faced particular concerns from residents of Bay View amid possible increases without increased services.

The Bay View area was drawn into the boundaries of the City Council in the 1989 local government reforms which did-away with the Hawke's Bay County Council, of which Bay View had previously been a part.

The Revenue and Finance Policy is the first rate structure review in Napier in more than 30 years, with councillors agreed a review was long overdue.

On Friday, fifth-term councillor Keith Price empathised with Bay View resident concerns, telling the meeting he and fellow Ahuriri Ward member Hayley Browne were "taken on a tour" of the area's roads.

With Bay View in his Ward, he conceded the conditions "were disgusting" and added: "If they were in the city they'd be fixed."

The Council had been hoping to complete deliberations by midday, but Mayor Kirsten Wise told the meeting: "We've only got the room booked until 12 o'clock."