Hills residents upset by new rates bills

Press, 9 August 1985, Page 5

Hills residents upset by new rates bills

Residents in the eastern hill suburbs of Christchurch may join Merivale ratepayers in refusing to pay this year’s rates, except for a 10 per cent increase, according to the president of the Mount Pleasant Ratepayers’ Association, Mr Donald Walker.

Mr Walker said last evening that that was “a possibility.” Ratepayers in Sumner, Redcliffs, Mount Pleasant, and Clifton have been invited to attend a public meeting on Sunday at the Mount Pleasant Community Centre at 2 p.m. to discuss any action on their recently received rate demands. The chairman of the Merivale Precinct Society, Mr Kim Pettengell, will attend the meeting and outline the steps that the society has taken, as well as

what its research and legal advice have yielded on the rates issue.

The East Ward councillors of the Christchurch City Council will also attend the meeting. These include Crs Clive Cotton, Louise Moore, and Mollie Clark. The member of Parliament for Lyttelton, Mrs Ann Hercus, is unable to attend.

The meeting has been called by a joint Ratepayers’ Action Group, representing the neighbourhood committees of the four main suburbs in the area. Mr Donald said that the meeting might also investigate joining with Heathcote County, as well as requesting that the City Council make submissions to the Government on changing the rating system to a more equitable system.

Mr W 7 alker said that since

people in that area had received their rate demands, from the end of last week, he had had several telephone calls complaining of big increases.

He said the increases ranged from 40 to 84 per cent.

One woman, aged 80, who lived in Scarborough, had received a new rates bill of $4394, a 75 per cent increase, he said. To make matters worse, the woman had no access to public transport, and faced a taxi bill of $25 every time she wished to travel into the city.

Mr Walker said that the rates issue had “really struck home” to people in the hill suburbs now that they had received their rate demands. As a result, he expected a big turn-out at the meeting.