Storm brews over Taylors Mistake drainage rates

Press, 26 May 1984, Page 9

Storm brews over Taylors Mistake drainage rates

Some Taylors Mistake ratepayers assert that they have been “carrying the costs” in drainage rates for Scarborough residents for the last 28 years. The Christchurch Drainage Board has decided to begin charging land drainage rates to residents on the top part of Taylors Mistake Road. The residents have been exempt from the rates since 1956, when a petition was presented to the board. The residents said then that they did not benefit from any works done by the board. However, the exemption applied only to some property owners at the top of Scarborough Hill, much to the annoyance of other residents. One of them, who did not wish to be named, said she lived further down the read on the Taylors Mistake side of the hill. “We have been paying rates for all these years while our neighbours further up the hill haven’t,” she said. “They have curbing and channelling and some stormwater facilities, while we have nothing at all." The woman said that she found out about the situa-

tion after reading an article in “The Press” this week. When she bought her property, 15 years ago, she complained about having to pay land drainage rates when there was no proper drainage in the area. “They (Christchurch Drainage Board) just told me it was one of those . things I had to pay for,” she said. Residents on the hill have not had to pay sewerage rates to the board because there was no sewerage scheme in the area. Residents at the bottom of the road would meet next week to discuss what they would do, she said. The board's administration officer, Mr Norman Kelly, said yesterday that he could understand why the woman was upset. “The board made a decision back in 1956, and 1 wasn’t here then. It was all legally written into the rates then and that is just the way it has been,” he said. Mr Kelly said residents who had been exempt from rates were now being charged the fees as the board would be spending money on a stormwater scheme in the area soon.

However, some of those residents are not happy about it either. Mr M. C. Mullions wrote to the board recently, along with a number of other residents, saying he would not pay for land drainage until something had been done to benefit his property. He said yesterday that although the board was installing a stormwater outfall, it was 200 metres up the road, and would have no effect on his property. “The board is just putting in a drain where the water naturally goes anyway. My property will still be flooded when it rains, and I don’t see why I have to subsidise the board for it,” he said. Mr Mullions was unaware that other residents further down the road had been paying rates for some time, but did not see why he should have to start paying. “I pay enough rates as it is — I pay for the Christchurch Transport Board, and we don’t get a bus service up here.”