Reports on two media outlets yesterday indicated our Council was considering a regional fuel tax, along the lines that Auckland is planning to implement. This is not the case.

The reports on Newshub and Stuff said Thames-Coromandel District Council was among 14 councils in New Zealand that have discussed the possibility of implementing a regional fuel tax.

Our Council is not considering doing this.

"A fuel tax is the kind of thing more suited to a metropolitan area - not a rural district like ours," says our Mayor Sandra Goudie. "We don't have any plans for a fuel tax, or to lobby for a Waikato regional fuel tax in three years when the legislation makes it possible," she says.

It turns out the Newshub and Stuff stories were based on Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) requests. Our Council received one from the ACT Party in early May that asked if our Council had discussed the possibility of introducing a regional fuel tax under legislation currently going through Parliament.

The topic was discussed, but it was more than three years ago in a Council workshop to prepare the 2015-2025 Long Term Plan, when our Council had a different mayor - Glenn Leach. The idea was not incorporated into that Long Term Plan and has not been discussed since.

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