KEY POINTS:
Residents of Point Wells might border the expensive beach resort of Omaha and the trendy Matakana Village, but their local council feels they need financial sweeteners to hook up to a new town sewage system.
On Friday, the first of 245 homes on the point was connected to a "pressurised wastewater collection system". It is the forerunner of several to be provided by the Rodney District Council to settlements where household septic tank disposal systems are failing to cope and causing smells, water pollution and health risks.
But while the council supplies the $1 million treatment system and the pipes, each household pays for its pump and installation.
Yesterday, the council decided to cut resource consent fees and halve the first year's $384 wastewater rate.
It will pay the installer and let residents repay it, plus interest, over up to 15 years.
Householders who can prove hardship can have their payments postponed until they can settle the debt or sell the property.
Residents are pleased with the news.
"We are not a bunch of millionaires here," said Noeline Cranston, of the Point Wells Community and Ratepayers Association.
"We have been trying to get the council to put in a treatment system for a long time but the best deal that could be negotiated with pump supplier and installer was $8500 a household.
"It's very hard to come up with that amount of money in an area like this where there are a lot who are pensioners or who are on fixed incomes.
"The council has been good coming to the party but, having said that, houses here have been revalued for rating at an unrealistic level and so our rates are horrendous."
Mrs Cranston said her latest home rates bill was 40 per cent more than last year's.
Council figures showed an average household income of $38,150 in the settlement.
Rodney Mayor Penny Webster said the change in the council's policy was a fair gesture.
"People said they could not afford it and so to encourage more people to connect we offered to hold consent fees at a reduced rate for those lodged before the end of the year."
She said a delay in equipment supplies prevented homes from connecting and using a system that they were paying the rate for.
"We have charged a service rate for a serviced town but they don't actually have a service yet. So, in good faith we said: 'You have not got a service so you will only pay half.'
"We cannot lower the rate once it's set so it is going to be given back in a grant."
