Ōtorohanga District Council to consult on Kawhia wharf fees

By Andy Campbell, Local Democracy Reporter

When the wharf fees and charges at Kawhia were raised by 200 percent in 2018, they were ignored by the customers - and the Ōtorohanga District Council and Kawhia Community Board have decided to start over and talk to their tenants.

The district council has no bylaw in place to charge the wharf users or recover the unpaid fees, corporate group manager Graham Bunn told the Kawhia Community Board meeting last week.

"It's not just an issue here. It's an issue all round the place. Because we have no bylaw in place, we have no means to recover anything that's not paid," he said.

Chief executive Tanya Winter said Westland District Council had a bylaw to collect fees off the use of its pier at Jackson Bay, and it was still unable to recover wharf fees.

She advised linking charges for fishermen to the maintenance of the wharf.

"They all want the asset kept upgraded. In order for council to do that, there needs to be income," Winter said. "A meeting with the boat owners might be an idea to try and get that level of understanding."

Ōtorohanga is 54.3km by road from Kawhia, where it has no permanent staff.

"I guess the problem at the office is we have no eyes or ears here," Bunn said.

The council doesn't know who is using the wharf from week to week or for how long. The wharf is used mostly by the charter fishing operators and a few trawlers.

The community board was presented with recommendations where it would endorse writing off the arrears in rental charges until 30 June, 2021. And that the council sign lease agreements including right-of-use of the wharf for berthing with each tenant of the six wharf sheds.

But instead it's agreed both the council and board were a bit premature.

The recommendation adopted at the meeting will be an agreement to arrange a meeting with the commercial and recreational boating community to discuss setting fair and reasonable charges, how they will be collected and who pays them.

Winter said in Jackson's Bay the council went with an asset management plan, providing information on how much it was going to cost to maintain the wharf, being open and transparent about the costs and what the council was trying to recover from users.

Community board chairperson Dave Walsh said he thought some piles do need to be replaced.

"I noticed the pontoon is on a lean too," he said.

The report to the meeting stated the charges including a 200 percent increase in berthage charges, were increased in 2018 following a request from the-then community board.

The increased charges were included in the 2018/28 Long Term Plan (LTP)for consultation but no submissions were received.

Apart from Taharoa Steel, Kawhia's other boat operators mostly declined or failed to pay. Recovery was hindered through lack of written records.

The LTP 2018-28 on the council's website records under Community Services show the fees and charges for Kawhia wharf were increased as follows:

1 July 2017 to 1 July 2018:

• shed rentals Taharoa Steel $1100, to $1375;
• other sheds $900, to $1125;
• power charge per shed connected $200.
• berthage Taharoa Steel $5000 to $6250;
• other permanent users $1000 to $2990;
• casual per day remained at $52.

The report stated both councillors and board members at the time expressed reservations, saying the fee increases were being driven by the Taharoa Steel operation, the fees were plucked out of the air with no analysis or data, they mentioned the haste of the increases with no phasing in, the smallness of the Kawhia market, and the need to consult with charter boat owners beyond the LTP consultation.

The sheds are currently charged $200 a year for power. There are metres installed on each shed, but these have not been read.

Separate readings and billing are intended to start from 1 July, 2021 as a couple of the sheds contain freezers.

Local Democracy Reporting is a public interest news service supported by RNZ, the News Publishers' Association and NZ On Air.