KEY POINTS:
Citizens & Ratepayers leader David Hay says his party has not broken its policy on water, saying it never promised to abolish "charitable payments" from the Auckland City Council's water company in one fell swoop.
Mr Hay yesterday said C&R had honoured its election manifesto that water and wastewater charges by Metrowater should be the "lowest possible" and water charges should not be used to subsidise general rates.
"Our promise was to review it [the charitable payment] and our philosophy is it shouldn't be and we have taken action to reduce it," he said.
C&R are taking lower payments from Metrowater and phasing them out over three to four years.
Mr Hay was responding to a Herald article stating that C&R and Auckland City Mayor John Banks promised an end to "water price gouging" and this had led to a $6 million bill for the city's water users.
The $6 million bill arose from this year's gross profit by Metrowater of $29.1 million for the 2007-08 financial year, set by the previous council with the backing of six C&R councillors. This year's 5.1 per cent rise in water bills, set by the C&R-controlled council, is expected to attract further tax next year.
In June last year, Mr Hay told the Herald that Metrowater was clearly being used as a "cash cow".
"Auckland City water and waste water users are now the only people in New Zealand paying a premium for their water and waste water to subsidise ratepayers, which stinks," he said then.
City Vision councillor Leila Boyle said C&R were unfairly continuing to use Metrowater as a "cash cow" to fund council projects that were completely unrelated to Aucklanders' water and waste water usage. Ms Boyle was one of several City Vision councillors who voted against the water policy in the last council term.
WHAT C&R PLEDGED
We believe water and waste water charges by Metrowater should be the lowest possible whilst maintaining a first-class water and waste water service with adequate capacity for future growth. We do not believe water and waste water charges should be used to subsidise council's general activities and general rates.
WHAT C&R HAS DONE
Stuck with "charitable payments", albeit smaller payments planned by the previous council. The payments will be phased out over three to four years.
