The Queenstown Lakes District Council has grudgingly taken responsibility for an error in rates notices sent out last week.
A week after the council issued a press statement blaming New Zealand Post - a charge immediately denied by the state-owned enterprise - the Otago Daily Times has finally received a straight answer from the council about which organisation was responsible for the land area figure on the first instalment of 2014-15 rates notices being rounded up to the nearest 100sq m.
It took a week, five emails, two phone calls and a request under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act to get a one-word answer to the question: ''was it a council error?''''Yes'', replied council communications manager Michele Poole yesterday.
That clarified earlier explanations, which were that the error occurred during the process of extracting and transferring data from the council's computer system to New Zealand Post's.
Although rates had been correctly calculated, a ''technical issue'' relating to the introduction of the council's new software system, Technology One, was responsible, Ms Poole said.
''A conversation with New Zealand Post saw both parties agreed on the cause and the solution to ensure it is not repeated.''
