Waitomo District Council has confirmed its fees and charges for 2024-2025, which will come into effect on 1 July.

Each year Council reviews, consults and updates its fees and charges to reflect the cost of providing services to the community. These can range from dog registration fees, landfill charges and the cost of building consents.

During the public consultation, which ran alongside consultation on the Long Term Plan, Council received seven submissions on the fees and charges proposal.

Chief Executive Ben Smit says Council provides a wide range of services and functions to the community which have a cost associated with them, and are not completely funded through rates.

“Fees and charges are applied to fund part of the operating costs of activities where the people who benefit can be directly identified and charged,” he says.

“Some people are often confused about the difference between paying for a service through rates and being charged a fee to use a service or facility. Fees are separate to any rates and the aim is to shift a proportion of the cost to the people who get the most use out of the services, rather than the general ratepayer.”

Due to the increased operating costs, most fees and charges are being increased by 5% in line with current inflation. This is to ensure costs are recovered so that Council services are not subsidised further by rates.

Of note, there is a general $3-5 increase in dog registration fees, however discounts similar to those offered by other councils have been included for dog owners who have a Gold Card and those with a more than five rural dogs, such as owners of large farms. 

Hireage of the Les Munro Centre has been simplified and a commercial rate has been set for hireage for a full day and an hourly rate.

A community rate at half the commercial rate has been set to support community groups bringing beneficial events to our district.

The Les Munro Centre has a cancellation fee of 50% if cancelled within 5 working days, and a minimum hireage of 2 hours.

For Waitomo District Library, most fees have increased by inflation and some retained where appropriate.

The DVD collection will be removed at some stage, but until then hireage will be free. New services or board games and 3D printing have been added, and there will be overdue charges for magazines and board games to encourage quick returns of these popular items.

The cost of purchasing an official WDC refuse bag will now be $5. All increased charges relate to waste disposal and the landfill to address Central Government’s increase in the Emissions Trading Scheme charges and waste levy imposed on local councils.

New fees have been established for street stalls, while making allowance for non-commercial stalls such as raffles and street collections to be exempt from paying the fee.

Mobile shops and traders now have daily, monthly, and annual fee options to provide better cost recovery while giving flexibility for traders.

Metered water rates are also impacted by cost increases. Rates for each scheme will be calculated through the rates modelling once a final rate has been set. A new administration fee and annual fee has also been added for taking of bulk drinking water.

The Animal and Dog Control Act and Food Act fees were adopted on 4 June.

A full list of fees and charges can be found on Council’s website from 1 July.