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Waitomo District Council has increased all fees and charges between 5% and 7% in line with inflation in the annual plan adopted on June 30.
The increases came in on July 1 and a fees schedule is available on the council website.
The reason given for the increases was to ensure costs were recovered to avoid council services being further subsidised by rates.
Mayor John Robertson and chief executive Ben Smit said the council faced three significant challenges.
The first was inflation driving costs upward. The consumer price index increased just over 7% in the calendar year.
The second was the council was in catch-up to repair the roading network after Cyclone Dovi in February 2022, which caused about $15 million in damage. Further storms since had added to the damage.
“This plan envisages us catching up on all repair work. The third is that we have put together this plan in a climate of much uncertainty,” they said.
“Central Government has once again changed direction with respect to its ‘Three Waters’ reform. It also has withdrawn the second tranche of ‘Better off Funding’ promised to councils in 2021.”
The council’s operating income for the year is expected to be $21.3 million, $6.6 million more than in the ten-year plan – mainly because of subsidy revenue to repair cyclone damaged roads.
