Criticism levelled at city councillors over a pre-election claim about city rates being lower, has resulted in a back-down by two of the councillors involved.

Councillors Bev Edlin, Bill Grainger, and deputy mayor Kelvin Clout appeared in a column in the Welcome Bay, Hairini, Ohauiti, Maungatapu, Poike community publication, The Whomp.

City councillor and mayoral candidate John Robson.

Mayoral candidate John Robson called attention to the publication, saying claims made in the column by the councillors are inaccurate and misleading.

The councilors claim the current council has lowered rates, which they say has been achieved.

'The rates haven't gone down, they have gone up - by significantly more than inflation,” says John.

'They also make reference to the significant change in the debt/revenue ratio. But if you look at the track for debt, what you have here is a blip produced by asset sales, development contributions coming in early, and delayed capital projects.”

The lowered debt/revenue ratio was reported on SunLive in July, with John predicting then that some councillors would campaign on the lowered debt which he describes as a ‘blip'. High debt levels return next year.

When contacted by SunLive, Kelvin Clout agreed the second paragraph could have been worded better.

'Many councillors did campaign on reducing rates, although it was reducing the percentage increase in rates that should have been more clearly put in that particular sentence,” says Kelvin.

'Clearly councils generally do not reduce rates, but in terms of the percentage increase our council has definitely been successful in doing that.”

Bill Grainger says the second paragraph should have been worded ‘reduce the rates percentage increase'.

'Why I say that is in my past rates increases were above the ten per cent,” says Bill.

'What we have been trying to do is lower that rates increase or percentage increase down to a lot lower level.

'It's an apology. I didn't pick it up, Bev prepared it. We all missed it and it's probably a mistake.”

Bill and Kelvin say the reason the whole council was included in the list of council achievements during the triennium, is because the whole council has taken part in all the things that they have done.

Bev, Bill and Kelvin have been part of The Whomp magazine since it started, says Bill.

If they did not mention the other councillors, he says John Robson would then be asking why they were not all involved when they stated the work the council has been done.

'Because we are all working as a collective and we should be very proud of the achievements we have made,” says Kelvin.

John says the list of initiatives is an over-claim.

'And the things we haven't advanced - our failures - seem to be missing from the list. So it's decidedly unbalanced. It gives a misleading view of the council and that's unreasonable.”

Bev says the information in The Whomp article was checked by four other councillors.

She wrote it and sent to a number of councillors who were happy that it would be published with their approval.

The debt/revenue figures of 244 per cent three years ago to a low this year of 197 per cent is from figures produced by the Finance and Rick Committee which John Robson chairs, says Bev.

'The figures are correct. It's the meaning or interpretation of them. They are the standard way that we produce the figures but an explanation behind them is always helpful.”

John says he wants nothing to do with it.

He says Kelvin has no excuse for using the debt/revenue percentage because he has a business degree.

'He's a mayoral candidate and in the last campaign he talked about going through the budget line by line. I'm not aware that he ever did that, but he has no excuse. The man has a business degree.”

Kelvin says the debt figure is as stated at the end of June, and agrees it will certainly climb back up again.

'That was only a point in time,” says Kelvin.

The Whomp claims are factually inaccurate, unbalance and misleading, says John.

'And then it's signed off as authorised by ward councillors on behalf of all Tauranga city councillors,” says John. 'I don't need anyone to speak for me and I certainly haven't authorized this.”

Council debt at June 30 was $297 million compared with a budget of $355 million. It was achieved by putting off expected spending on capital projects like the Marine Precinct, there was an unbudgeted $10 in revenue from land sales, and an early $10 million in revenue from development contributions.

'It sounds good. Some politician will be parading that as a proof that we got the debt down,” says John at the time.

'We flogged some land, the development contributions are coming in quicker than forecast, and we haven't delivered on capital projects for various reasons. In 2016/17 the debt is going to be back up to where it's forecast.”