Sparks fly at Rangataua residents meeting

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 15, 8 September 1987, Page 1

Sparks fly at Rangataua residents meeting

The following report on a meeting held between the Waimarino County Council and Rangataua residents and ratepayers on Saturday 5 September was supplied by Mr Tim Warmington, secretary of the Rangataua Ratepayers' Association.

County Councillors and ratepayers crossed swords at a 'public relations' meeting attended by about 50 Rangataua residents and ratepayers in the Rangataua Hall last Saturday. A question about the future of Rangataua had to be asked three times before the local Council finally agreed that it had already taken the decision to install a sewerage reticulation system for the area against the wishes of the majority pf ratepayers in the village. The Council wishes Rangataua, five kilometres south of Ohakune, to comply with its own wishes, and those of some property developers, to expand the area to increase its value and hence its rates income. The majority of the Rangataua residents and ratepayers, (at this the

third of such 'public relations' type meetings) again overwhelmingly stated to the Council that they want the village left as it is, with the modern overseas self-contained sewerage disposal methodologies to be accepted by Council for building permit purposes. But the Council took little heed of majority opinion once again, and is clearly set on a course of development of the village. Of the 15 ratepayers or residents who raised questions or expressed their views at the meeting, only one property developer, Mr Paul Scarf, spoke in favour of the development proposals. The other 14 were strongly against it. Secretary of the Rangataua Residents and Ratepayers Association, Mr Tim Warmington, sug-

gested the majority opinion of leaving Rangataua the way it was seemed to be so far out of line in a democratic, user pays, ma-jority-opinion-rules type of country as to seem to be bordering on rule by dictatorship. He asked for a poll of all Rangataua residents and ratepayers to be taken on the issue, but the Council merely said that it would "consider it". But Council did agree to distribute minutes of the meeting to all ratepayers. The Council is under pressure by minority interests to take advantage of a Government subsidy to install sewerage, and this subsidy is available for only a limited time - it will not be available after next year. But going ahead with the sewerage scheme means that affected ratepayers will be faced with "estimated" lump sum costs in the order of $1500 each, or an addition to their rates of about $250 per annum, whether they want either the sewerage - or the further development of Rangataua which would follow from it - or not. Many residents simply cannot afford it, and most of them certainly do not cont'd on p. 3

Rangataua residents meeting (cont'd from p. 1)

want the obvious development which would follow. They were also told at the meeting that these estimated costs do not include the cost of the water reticulation necessary to flush the sewerage away which could double the sewerage costs. An engineer's report to Council on their project has been adversely criticised (by one of the leading town planning professionals in the country) as being a very poorly researched and prepared report, but the Council did not wish to comment on this. The Council stated that what it wished to do was: "in the best interests of the majority of the ratepayers and residents of Rangataua", but almost all the speakers from the floor stated that this was simply not the case. Council also mentioned the possibility of disease breaking out due to what they termed poor sewerage disposal, but retracted this after the Ratepayers' Association's Secretary said that he had contacted the Health Department Head Office in Wellington about the likelihood of an outbreak of typhoid, cholera, or other classical epidemics breaking out in the area. They had told him that this was so unlikely in this day and age as to be entirely negligible. t

Council then finally agreed that it was not the vital issue which they had earlier claimed that it was. Three speakers from the floor berated the Council for their failure to clear the drains in Rangataua which was resulting in high water tables, some flooding of low-lying areas, and hence the lack of adequate drainage for existing septic tanks. The Council refused to comment, making it clear to the 50 or so ratepayers present that it would pursue its present course despite the majority's wishes. When the subject of who could object to the Council's scheme was raised and Council said that only those in the Kaka Street sewerage scheme proposal could object or vote on the issue, Messrs Middleditch and various other ratepayers got up and walked out of the meeting. The effect of the Council's proposals on some of the older, longstanding residents financial position's was likely to be crippling, even though Council said that the Social Welfare Department may be able to help out with loan moneys, (subject to means tests, and presumably also to the current market interest rates). At present interest rates of around 20 percent per annum, even this would amount to some $200 per

year in interest alone for each $1000 borrowed, let alone repayments of the capital amounts borrowed as well. With the costs of the necessary water reticulation on top of the estimated sewerage costs already provided, Council indicated that there could be total costs of at least $3000 per ratepayer, and these figures did not include "connection fees". At the conclusion of what was supposed to have been a 'public relations' exercise the Council told the Secretary of the Residents and Ratepayers Association that, even though he might wish to represent the majority wishes of those he represented, he was asking too many questions, and was taking up too much of their time, then they arbitrarily closed the meeting. It is perhaps important to mention that neither the Chairperson nor the Secretary of the Ratepayers' association, among others, happened to receive a notice of the meeting, which was held on a Saturday morning when many ratepayers were absent in the height of the school holidays skiing season. The only reason the Secretary of the R.atepayers' Association attended was because he happened to see the cars assemble outside the Rangataua Hall as he was about to take his family skiing at Turoa.