“Mike the meter!” is the humorous cartoon character created by Waikato District Council to make water meters less painful for Raglanites. Mike has been having problems before he even gets started on 1st July when water meter charging starts in Raglan.
Early this year, Mike sent a trial water meter bill to all Raglan ratepayers, then two weeks ago he sent another trial bill. These bills appeared to cover the seven and a half month period from September 2016 to May 2017. Raglanites started patting themselves on the back for achieving low water usage of less than a hundred cubic meters over such a long period.
Then a few days ago, Mike sent out another water meter bill, with giant letters saying AMENDED. While the water consumption quantity was the same as the early June bill, the mid June bill showed the period only covering two months. So instead of showing light water usage, the amended bills showed a much higher water usage.
Water meter billing was announced by Waikato District councillors in 2014. The Council has had three years to get the billing right. It’s not good enough that this billing mix-up has occurred. On Bow Street, the word is that Raglanites are confused about these water bills.
We’ve also heard that three years after water meter installation started that some Raglan properties haven’t had meters installed yet. These seem to be cross-lease properties, with two homes on one title, that only had one water supply line. Ratepayers have received letters saying that water meter charging will be deferred and that they will be charged last year’s fixed water rate instead.