A meeting initiated by Raglan ratepayers about limited benefits coming from the Regional Council’s West Coast Zone rate has had a positive outcome. About 25 people were at the meeting held on Friday 25th at the Raglan Sunset Motel. Waikato Regional councillors Husband and Stark supported by WRC staff were at the meeting. Doug Arcus was the independent chair.
The meeting agreed to set up a working party of WRC, WCZ and a Raglan rep. to move forward and Stuart Husband said he was willing to meet again in Raglan; this is the first time he’s been here.
Raglander John Lawson said, “It’s not a radical improvement, but it is a change in the right direction and I was impressed that they gave so much information, so it seems there’s a genuine wish to improve how they’re doing things.”
WRC staff at the meeting confirmed that 29% of expenditure in the West Coast Zone is on overhead under the category of ‘Catchment Oversight’ and that $417,292 of rate has not been spent. It appears that a large part of the ‘Catchment Oversight’ expenditure goes on the operating costs for the West Coast Zone Advisory committee.
The meeting started with Mathew Davis from the WRC explaining, with some very poor unreadable PowerPoint charts, that most Regional Council expenditure goes on running buses with relatively a small amount spent on Integrated Catchment Management. He went on to show some maps identifying priority areas across the region that needed attention.
The PowerPoint baton was then passed to Jude Addenbrook, the West Coast Zone Manager. She covered details of the expenditure pointing out that a lot of staff work was on prioritisation and education. About 50% of expenditure on Catchment Management in the West Coast Zone came from the General Rate. Prioritisation work included water quality in the Zone. One ratepayer pointed out that what has happened in terms of how the money is being spent is not how the targeted rate was sold in the first place. It seems that the reason for this is that WRC has imposed their standard zone committee model on the West Coast and this means that due to the low rating income, that the committee and other overhead costs use up a large part of the rate take. Ms Addenbrook also provided a status analysis of the current situation against the Whaingaroa Environment Centre’s Whaingaroa Catchment plan document.
Next it was time to discuss policing of WRC’s regulations and their were some red faces on WRC staff when it became apparent that the research section of WRC had not informed the policing arm of WRC about breaches of the rules on grazing near beaches. WRC said they would act to close this communication gap in future. The meeting was told that WRC does not proactively police the regulations but reacts quickly to any complaints. The team of people who acts on complaints is small and covers the whole region.
Mr Alan Vink spoke to the meeting towards the end saying few Raglan people were aware of these issues and then speaking in support of WRC. At the time, people thought he was speaking as Chair of the Raglan Community Board. Comments made since the meeting suggest that Mr Vink’s comments were his own and that the Raglan Community Board has not discussed the matter of ensuring that the West Coast Zone rate is spent more effectively. Mr Vink said he will explain his comments at a future independently chaired meeting.
In addition to setting up the working party, the Regional Council has agreed to email the PowerPoint and other info out to those who want it. Contact Jude Addenbrooke if you want a copy. E Jude.Addenbrooke@waikatoregion.govt.nz WRC also stated that they will fill in the gaps on information provided on Whaingaroa Environment Centre’s Whaingaroa Catchment Plan document.
Malibu Hamilton said that it was a good idea to morph the current positive situation into a community education process.