Council reserve fees to be reviewed

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 9, Issue 428, 17 March 1992, Page 1

Council reserve fees to be reviewed

A review of the Council's methods of charging for the use of reserves is to be undertaken. "This review will be part of an on-going process to ensure that appropriate charges are recovered from the users of Council facilities. The need to review charges for reserves was identified at the same time as for district libraries but as the issues are more complicated they will take longer to resolve," said mayor Garrick Workman last week.

"In some cases reserves were being exclusively occupied by sports bodies which met the full costs of their recreation and paid lease fees to Council, other cases involved partial occupation of reserves for club houses and partyear seasons. Recoveries varied greatly from code to code with the Council, in some cases, paying the majority of the cost incurred in maintaining the reserves and the improvements thereon for the sports bodies concerned."

"A fair and workable policy is required to ensure the recreation needs of the community are met. However, we must. also ensure a reasonable cost recovery programme is put in place, consistent with the ability of different types of users to meet charges that are affordable." The procedure to be followed for this review is that Council consider a report on the matter at it's May meeting, invite submissions from users and the public and finalise a policy in due course.