27 May 2012

Rangitikei Residents Furious at Unfairness

‘Koitiata residents are furious at the unfairness of the Rangitikei District Council’s (RDC) proposal to increase their rates by 40-50% to cover the cost of services to which they have no access,’ Chair of the local Residents’ Committee, Keith Gray said today.

The Residents’ Committee has resolved to take this issue to the highest level and has called a meeting of all residents in the village hall, Wainui Street, Koitiata, Sunday June 3rd at 2.00pm to discuss further action.

‘Feeling about this issue has reached fever pitch,’ said Mr Gray. ‘The residents are united in their resolve to have this provision repealed and they won’t resile from that position,’ he said.

The Council’s ten year plan proposes to have a common charge for water and sewerage services across the whole Rangitikei region rather than retaining the fairer differentiated charging structure that operates presently.

‘Every rate-payer in Koitiata village will have their rates substantially increased to cover the costs of providing water and sewerage services to people living in other areas of the Rangitikei,’ said Mr Gray. ‘It is grossly unfair and will create hardship for many of our residents who are retired and on fixed incomes. They are in no position to absorb such an outrageous increase,’ he said.

‘Our residents have already paid the cost of installing and operating their own water supplies and their own septic tanks,’ said Mr Gray. ‘The few houses that share a small sewerage system pay a full cost recovery fee to access that service and that’s their choice,’ he said. ‘The Council cannot expect us to be paying twice for services we’ve already paid for ourselves,’ he said.

ENDS

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