Deadline looms for North Shore and Rodney ratepayers

By CLAIRE TREVETT

The first ratepayers to bear the brunt of increased Auckland Regional Council rates face a 10 per cent penalty if they do not pay by tomorrow.

The deadline for ratepayers in North Shore and Rodney, the first to receive bills, is 5pm. Then they face a penalty charge of 10 per cent.

A last-minute attempt by those opposing the rates to push the deadline out has so far failed.

The chairman of Glenfield Ratepayers, David Thornton, who spearheaded the Regional Ratepayers Rebellion petition and public meetings, yesterday made a last-ditch effort to stop the rates.

He and other heads of Auckland-wide ratepayers' associations met ARC councillors Mike Lee and Philip Sherry and council staff yesterday to demand the council consider re-setting the rates.

The ARC has already partially backed down, saying it will review the rating system but not until next year.

That leaves the region's 448,914 ratepayers stuck with this year's rates.

Mr Thornton also asked the council to defer the due date from August 6 to September 15, to withhold imposing penalties for non-payment until the rates issue was settled, and to make more payment options available.

After the meeting he said the council officers had been "intransigent".

Mr Thornton said they were told they could not see a legal opinion obtained by council on re-setting the rates because the councillors had not yet seen it.

"It was a revealing meeting, in that it seems the ARC is totally in the hands of its officers as far as I can see."

A council spokesman said it obtained a legal opinion on Mr Thornton's demands before the meeting and was seeking a second legal opinion.

Mr Thornton said he was disappointed that the council's powers seemed to be vested in its officials. "My colleagues and I were staggered. I don't know whether the politicians have got a mind of their own or not.

"Of the 13 councillors, four are out of the country at a time they're facing the biggest crisis the council has ever faced.

"We are on the verge of going to the Minister of Local Government and asking him to appoint a commissioner because this council cannot govern. I am deeply disturbed."

Meanwhile the website's online payment system crashed on the last day for residents from Waitakere City, Manukau City and some in the western suburbs of Auckland City to get a 2.5 per cent discount on their rates.

Ratepayer Jan Riley said she tried at least four times to pay using the internet option, hoping to get a $13.40 discount on her $536 rates bill.

She was met with a message saying payments could not be processed.

A spokeswoman for the council said people who had rung in or emailed because they could not pay would still get the discount if they paid by the end of the week.

She said others who missed the deadline but did not email or call until later would be treated case by case.

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