DOC Rebuts Rates Claim By Westland Mayoral Candidate

Friday, 10 October 2025, 4:49 pm
Article: Lois Williams - Local Democracy Reporter

A Westland mayoral candidate who has vowed to levy rates on conservation land will be out of luck, according to DOC.

Jacquie Grant has claimed on her social media campaign page that DOC can be rated on land it uses for commercial purposes, and if elected she will make sure it is charged.

“As your Mayor, I will immediately move to ensure that all commercial activities on otherwise non-rateable DOC land – such as the new paid carparks at Franz Josef and Punakaiki – are correctly identified and rated.”

The “legal precedent” was clear, Ms Grant claimed.

“While conservation land is exempt, the Local Government (Rating) Act allows us to rate any portion of that exempt land used for commercial purposes to generate revenue.”

But DOC says Ms Grant has misunderstood the Act.

DOC’s West South Island operations director Owen Kilgour says conservation land being used to generate income for DOC itself, is not rateable.

“Revenue from DOC commercial activity contributes to the operational cost of delivering conservation outcomes.”

Only conservation land being used by commercial operators under concession agreements can be charged rates, Mr Kilgour said.

“Some concessionaire activities, grazing leases on public conservation land, for example, are subject to rates, and those rates are paid by those concessionaires.”

Ms Grant declined to comment but said later on social media she had intended to stimulate debate.

The Hokitika business owner says if elected she would have the council levy rates on land owned by utility networks including power and telecommunications companies.

“For too long major companies operating power lines, cables and other fixed networks across our district have escaped contributing their fair share to local rates …the power exists to rate these large commercial operators (but) Westland District Council has chosen not to do this in the past.”

It was now time is now to review that, with the aim of recovering every dollar possible to provide relief for ratepayers, Ms Grant told her followers.

None of the Coast’s three District Councils currently charges rates on land used by the utility companies for their networks.

Westland mayor Helen Lash says she’s unaware of any other councils who do so.

“It’s not normal practice; I know on my own land, Westpower has an easement for its power lines but we still pay the rates.”

Focusing on utility companies was to ignore all the other categories of landowners who were legally exempt under the Rating Act, Mrs Lash said.

“There’s a long list of entities - churches, airport companies, railways, conservation land – none of them pay rates and that Act is long overdue for a overhaul.

They have all benefited from that exemption while we as ratepayers carry the load.” Buller mayor Jamie Cleine said the return from charging utility companies would be minimal in Buller’s case, because BDC rates were based on land value.

“You get a situation where you’ve got a million-dollar plant on land worth $25,000- so it’s hardly worth it. It was actually one of the plus factors in favour of changing to a capital-value rating system a few years back, but in the end we didn’t go with it, ”Mr Cleine said.

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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