E. Hughes (The Sun 27 August) the Tauranga City Council Public Relations person, is in my opinion way off the mark with her take on Council rating policies. I think Ms Hughes should reconsider and print a retraction. In my opinion, she is wrong for the following reasons.
The Baypark Stadium general rates remission alleged by Council to be contained in Section 4.5 Community and not for profit organisations reads;
'Land used primarily for the promotion of sport, art, health, recreation or education and not used for private pecuniary profit may receive a 100% remission on general rates. This remission will not apply to land used for organisations who are affiliated or who could be affiliated to Clubs New Zealand Incorporated or used for horse racing.” It cannot apply because neither Mr Clarkson nor Tauranga City Venues Limited can claim that the land was not used for private pecuniary profit.
Baypark sewage charges in Section 4.7 which reads;
'In order to provide relief to non-domestic ratepayers that choose to install more toilets than required by the building code, Council may partially remit the sewerage charge for non-domestic ratepayers and educational establishments where the number of toilet pans installed exceeds the number of pans required under the building code”. It is also flawed because on the basis of Stadium capacity, a total of 186 toilet appliances is required, not 47 as shown in TCC Remission Schedule.
On the Mount Greens Kawaka Street, Mount Maunganui site, in response to an enquiry from me in March 2010, Tauranga City Council advised that the 2.6 hectares of land was not rateable because it related to land used by a local authority for public garden, reserve or children's playgroups. Unadulterated rubbish, it was industrial business use zoned land and was roughly grassed open paddock.
I believe the Council's disregard and misinterpretation of its own rating remission policies in respect of these two sites has cost TCC ratepayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost rates over the past 10 years. It is just not good enough!
Rob Paterson, Matapihi.