Other Considerations

Fees and Charges

Council routinely reviews fees and charges to ensure they reflect the true cost of providing essential services to the district. To ensure fairness in how some services are funded, it's important that the costs are generally covered by those who use them. By updating our fees and charges, we can better align with this principle and avoid those not using the service from subsidizing its cost.

As part of this process, Council is adjusting its general fees and charges along with those related to the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) and the Food Act 2014. These adjustments are also necessary due to the increasing costs of delivering these services and the fact that fees have not been amended in over four years.

Under the Food Act, fees and charges support vital health and safety services, including the inspection and monitoring of restaurants and eateries to ensure public safety and compliance with food safety standards. Similarly, fees under the RMA support critical functions such as issuing resource consents and managing subdivisions, services essential for regulatory compliance, land development, and environmental protection.

These proposed updates are designed to ensure that Council can continue to provide these important services effectively while maintaining fairness for all ratepayers.

See all proposed fees and charges

Annual Grants

Community grants are a vital component of our societal landscape, playing a pivotal role in fostering local development, confronting pressing issues, and enriching the lives of our community members.

Council values the opportunity to connect the aspirations of local leaders, community groups, and volunteers with the resources necessary to bring their visions to life. Waimate District Council community support grants aim to facilitate a wide range of efforts including welfare, heritage, and educational programs that serve to make our district an even more wonderful place to live.

Our vision for the future involves continuing to support these five annual grant recipients.

Let's Talk Policy

When Council makes significant changes to our financial policies or our Significance and Engagement Policy, we are required to let you know and give you a chance to have your say.

These policies determine how we decide to collect rates, who we rate, what we rate for, and what rate remissions we will apply. The only policy with notable changes is our Rates Remission and Postponement Policy. The other policies are subject to minor changes only.

Community housing remission removal

We have proposed to remove the remission of 50% of the Civic Amenities Charges for the Council owned Community Housing at 8-16 Kennedy Crescent.

We want our Community Housing to be self-funding and think the removal of this remission is a fairer approach to keeping the rates charged for each Unit in line with the rates applicable to any property with a dwelling. What this means in practice is that Council – as the property owner – will have more rates to pay, so in turn will require sufficient income from the tenants of Kennedy Crescent to ensure the activity pays for itself. The flipside of this is that the balance of ratepayers who pay a Civic Amenities Rate in the Urban area will no longer have to absorb the value of this remission, as the Civic Amenities charge will be spread over more properties.

New remission of rates on Māori freehold land

We are required by legislation to have a rates remission policy on Māori Freehold Land. With consideration to schedule 11 of the Local Government Act 2002 and how it supports the principles set out in the Preamble to Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993, we propose to introduce a rates remission for Māori Freehold Land that meets a specified criteria. Only land whose beneficial ownership has been determined by a freehold order issued by the Māori Land Court qualifies as Māori Freehold Land, and may therefore qualify for a remission under our proposed policy.

We are aware of only a handful of properties in our District that could qualify – however this is subject to review and supporting information being made available.

It’s important to note that the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 already has provisions where certain properties are deemed to be non-rateable – which we apply by default – before then considering any remissions. We therefore expect there will be limited applications received for this remission and negligible financial implications. We will still charge targeted rates for services such as water, wastewater and waste collection where these services are provided. We will also require applications in writing on an annual basis.