Under the new schedule, a $20 daily fee would be charged for people outside the districts for the Whakatāne Harbour boat ramp and a $10 fee for Thornton and Ōhiwa boat ramps.
As well as the daily fee for people living outside the district and who didn’t pay rates in the district, a one-off administrative fee of $20 for district residents to use the boat ramp is being proposed.
During a month-long public consultation, the council received 53 submissions: 27 were opposed to a boat ramp fee, 25 agreed with it and one was unsure.
Three of the submitters who wanted the boat ramp to be free addressed the council in person.
Graham Walker said he would not use the boat ramp if he was going to be charged, even if it cost him more to go further afield.
“I’m going to Opape or I’m going to Waihau Bay … because I believe that amenity should be free.”
He has refused to use Whitianga boat ramp since the council introduced a fee there, despite saying he enjoys the area.
“Fishermen are pretty prickly people. If they see something that they don’t believe in, in principle, they will kick up and head the other direction.”
Barry Cutfield agreed that a fee would deter guests to the district.
“The scheme is cumbersome, repressive, regressive and laden with overheads. For visitors, the hassle of the transaction is possibly more significant than the sum.”
He proposed promoting the district, using “zero fees and zero hassle” as a tool to attract boaties.
“They spend a bob in our businesses while they’re here. We should recognise the economic benefits of that spend.”
David Matthews said the user-pays approach to the boat ramp would leave a “sour taste” in the mouths of visitors.
He listed several council services in the district he did not use but contributed to through his rates, such as libraries, parks and playgrounds.
“Twenty dollars might not be very much, but we all know that this is the thin end of the wedge … Next thing we could be paying $100.
Councillor Wilson James said boat ramp users shouldn’t be singled out for a user-pays model that was being applied inconsistently.
“If we charge for the boat ramp we should also charge for parking, and I certainly don’t support that.”
Councillor Lesley Immink also opposed a fee at this stage, wanting to promote Whakatāne as a no-fees place for recreational boaties.
Finance general manager Paul Davidson said that though harbour leases brought in around $2.6 million in income for the Harbour Operational Fund, operating costs were trending toward a deficit for the past three years.
It was $172,000 in deficit at the end of the past financial year.
Cleaning and keeping the boat ramp free of debris costs around $140,000 annually, depending on weather conditions.
Mayor Tanczos said he supported the fee, otherwise rates would need to be raised further to cover the deficit.
“When you think about the cost of buying a boat, filling your 4WD up with diesel, towing it from out of town, filling it up with ice and bait … the cost that we’re talking about is nothing,” he said.
He accepted some boaties might avoid Whakatāne, on principal.
“There are people like that, but that’s not most people.”
He said if the council didn’t charge for boat ramps, they should not charge for use of sports grounds or community halls either.
“If I think about the people who need to be subsidised in our community, I think about the kids playing sport. If we were going to be putting the rates up, that’s who I would put them up for.”
How boat ramp fees will work
Many of the 27 submitters opposed to boat ramp fees were under the impression that the $20 fee for local residents would be charged annually.
Whakatāne District Council’s mayor and councillors were assured by staff that this was a one-off payment.
It would cover the council’s administrative costs of registering the vehicles they used to tow their boats as belonging to residents.
Many were also concerned that the cost of policing the system would be greater than any income it would generate or that the income would be minimal.
Ports and harbours team leader Mark Read assured councillors there would be no cost to the council to introduce the fee.
An independent supplier would collect the fee, retaining 15% of the revenue to run the programme.
Payments could be made online through using a QR code link and they would monitor who was using the boat ramp by installing a licence plate recognition camera on the site.
Once set up on the system, local users could have up to two vehicles registered on it, which they could update for no charge whenever they wished.
Anyone using the boat ramp without paying a fee would receive a notice that they had breached the boat ramp’s terms of use.
This system was already being used successfully in Coromandel. The system would also be able to provide data to the council on numbers of boats using the boat ramp.
– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.