Manukau Not Listening

“People are calling but the Manukau City Council has taken the phone off the hook”.

This is how Pakuranga councillor Dick Quax describes the Council attitude towards its rejection of a volumetric component to its unpopular fixed wastewater charges.

The Policy and Activities Meeting recommended charging a fixed rate for wastewater at its meeting.

“We considered over 400 submissions on wastewater most them in support of a user pays pricing which was also supported by Manukau Water Ltd. In addition to that there was an online petition circulated by People’s Choice last year which collected nearly 2,000 signatures supporting some form of user pays for wastewater”.

Cr Quax points out that a fixed charge for wastewater is unfair and penalises small users of water such as the elderly and people living on their own.

“Here in Pakuranga there are many elderly people on fixed incomes who are being charged three or four times the water they bring into their homes to get rid of it – where is the fairness in that.”

“There is no fairness in a pricing regime which forces low users of water to subsidise high users”.

I am particularly disappointed that the mayor, Len Brown and Pakuranga councillor David Collings supported the fixed price regime.”