Letters to the Editor

Ratepayers should ‘pay up and shut up’

I have read numerous articles highlighting Mangawhai Residents and Ratepayers Association’s initial “rates revolt” constantly singing Mangawhai’s swansong and desecrating Magical Mangawhai’s  image further impacting on property values and sales entitled “retired elderly ratepayers on fixed incomes can’t afford to pay rates increases.”

Now the plague is unfairly targeting all of Kaipara’s ratepayers with the Kaipara Citizens and Ratepayers Association Chairman adding his two-bits worth, and I quote: “the numbers withholding payments looks to increase dramatically….”

These are the same ratepayers who elect Councillors to make decisions they are not competent or capable of making themselves, ie make the tough calls, brought about by past arrogant defiant ratepayers’ refusal to accept the 1970s Government handout.

“Who in their right mind would buy property in Mangawhai when striking ratepayers advocate rate revolt ‘crap mentality’ while the Eco-Care project debt continues to grow daily.

Sure, there are some administration management anomalies within council which need addressing but let’s get the facts crystal clear.

1: With the discovery of Magical Mangawhai’s beaches and once pristine harbour with no mangroves, by outsiders, (today’s “whingeing ratepayers”) development and growth took off at such a rate basic infrastructure wasn’t planned or designed to cope. I know, I lived here back then.

2: Ratepayers have never ever paid enough rates for the standard of infrastructure they think their contributions entitles them to – sealed roads, kerb and channelling, sealed footpaths, on-site wastewater treatment systems outdated when population density necessitates a community reticulated system to stop pollution of our harbour, be they bach-owners, permanent residents or farmers.

3: If you can’t afford to pay rates, you can’t afford to own property.The latter is a direct result of selfish, egotistical, unappreciative  ratepayers with negative vision to accept the government of the day $7.8 million offer back in the late 1970s to instal a fully funded wastewater system in Mangawhai. Today it will cost an approx. $4.5 million in commissioners fees to sort out Mangawhai’s  EcoCare project ‘debt’ and not that of the whole of the Kaipara ratepayers.

The only positive productive solution to reduce Mangawhai’s debt is for all ratepayers within the drainage district to make an equal, I repeat ‘equal’ cash injection of some $5,000 to $8,000 reducing debt by some $15 to $24 million thus reinstating Magical Mangawhai’s image and property market values in turn enabling elderly retired citizens to increase capital gain so they can move into affordable retirement locations instead of leaving their debt for their grandchildren to pay off.

Striking ratepayers should ‘pay up and shut up,’  be proud to participate in the history making of the changing landscape of Mangawhai and direct their energies into assisting the Mangawhai Park Steering Committee into making Mangawhai an even better place to live.

Noel Paget

Mangawhai.

One commissioner enough?

It is interesting that the Government should appoint four commissioners to sort out Kaipara District Council's problems when I understand they found that one commissioner was able to sort out Rodney District Council's problems and years ago Sir Rochford Hughes was appointed the sole commissioner to sort out the old Northland Harbour Board's problems. The number of commissioners seems to be inverse to the size of the problem and council.

We should keep in mind the New Zealand Audit Office was unable to detect Kaipara's problems and apparently neither was the Ministry of Internal Affairs, until both government bodies were prodded into action by the Mangawhai Ratepayers and Residents Association, which has far fewer resources than either the Audit office and Ministry of Internal Affairs.

If anyone should be paying the commissioners' wages it should be those two departments to make up for their incompetence in this affair.

The situation we now face is very much one of those cases where a stitch in time could have saved nine. How many millions of dollars have gone down the KDC's drain because these departments would not heed the MRRA's pleas years ago ?

Roy Vaughan

Mangawhai 

Re KDC Annual Report

A KDC press release makes a song and dance act of the fact that the council has obeyed the law. It now rates as a huge major achievement that this council gets its annual report out by the last day that it is legally allowed to do so.

The auditor general poses the question about whether the council is a going concern and makes the very telling point that the survival of the council is in the hands of its bankers.

I ask readers to think aboout whether they would buy shares in an organisation whose auditors declared, in the annual report, that the only way the house of cards would remian standing is if the bankers didn’t blow on it.

There is a loss reported of $10M. That is a level of loss given the total size of the operation that in any other context would result in bankruptcy proceedings. That it hasn’t tells you immediately that the commissioners have assured the bankers that one way or another they will screw the shortfall out of the ratepayers – because there is certainly no other source of money to close the gap. 

That means that from day one the commissioners have been acting in the interests of third parties, and not, as they are required by law to do,  in the interests of the ratepayers, to the exclusion of all other interests.

Bruce Rogan

Mangawhai