Couple hit by bills for buses they don't use

By WAYNE THOMPSON

Don and Glenys Pratt never shirked their civic duty back in their working days when the top income tax rate was 60c in the dollar.

Nor did they challenge their local district council's rates demand of $958 - though their west Rodney home was without town water and sewerage services.

But yesterday the retired Huapai couple were not so willing to send a cheque by return mail for an Auckland Regional Council levy more than treble what they paid last year - $64.42 had become $214.

About half was to pay for improvements to public transport.

The rates were based on a capital value of $315,000 for their home of 10 years on State Highway 16.

Mrs Pratt, a former registered nurse for 28 years at Tokoroa and Auckland Hospitals, said: "Why should we have to pay for Auckland when we don't go into the city?"

There is a bus stop outside their home but the couple use their car for fortnightly trips to the supermarket at Henderson, 20 minutes' drive away, and walk up to 40 minutes to shops in Huapai and Kumeu.

"We've used the buses, and would use them again," said Mrs Pratt.

"It's just they are few and far between. When you want to come home you have to wait and wait."

She did not know how many buses pass their gate. Officially, western Rodney has eight return trips daily subsidised by the ARC.

The couple raised two children and retired 17 years ago.

"We had hardly taken anything out of the system until we got our pension."

Mr Pratt said a rates bill from the Rodney District Council arrived soon after the ARC bill.

It was for $958 compared with $911 last year, because the district council decided to increase rates from rural townships by 5.17 per cent.

"So, we've been hit by a double-whammy," said the former Kinleith pulp mill maintenance engineer.

He had some advice for regional councillors: "I used to look at breakdowns and problems. I'd look for the root cause. Well the root cause of traffic congestion in Auckland is too many cars go there. So make it expensive for them to go there. They did it in London and it worked."

Smaller buses should pick up from around the area, he said, to encourage patronage and cut subsidy costs, which the ARC says amount to $74,404, shared by 541 ratepayers.