Drivers to pay as council lifts own rates

One of the reasons the North Shore City Council is looking at charging parking fees at its busway stations is a big rise in the rates it charges itself.

Council finance manager Jenny Livschitz said last night that all councils had to demand rates on titled land regardless of who owned them.

No exceptions were made for public bus stations or even libraries.

A new land valuation has caused rates for the North Shore park and ride stations to rise from $137,000 in 2008-09 to $254,000.

Busway stations team leader Anthony Blom said the council was challenging the assessment.

Cuts in regional transport subsidies have also contributed to the council's shortfall in revenue to operate the stations.

A council committee yesterday decided to have officers look into introducing $2-a-day charges at its Albany and Constellation stations from June.

Trimming costs would cut the shortfall by $180,000, officials say. This would leave a loss of $257,000 in the first year and $292,000 in the second year which could be covered by the $2 charge.

The council hired Quotable Value to assess the basis for rating the stations' land value.

Constellation stations was assessed at $10.5 million compared with $8.1 million - with the result that its rates bill went up from $85,000 to $93,000 this year.

Albany's land value rose from $6.5 million to $18.8 million and its rates increased from $75,000 to $169,000.

The council would not sit in judgment on its own rates appeal. Its objection would go to independent arbitration.

"But us challenging the QV valuation is not really going to help us in terms of filling the gap because if we don't pay the rates ourselves, we still have to get the money from somewhere," Ms Livschitz said.

The danger of losing free parking was reported by the Herald on November 25.

Yesterday, councillors hinted the charge was likely to be brought in by the new Auckland Council, which takes over from November 1.

Meanwhile, the North Shore council must present any charges and fee proposals for public consultation starting in March.