The beginning of the 2009-10 financial year will see higher fees for activities ranging from the use of Moana Pool and its gymnasium, car parks and the council's cemeteries and crematorium to building consents and access to the Chinese Garden.
The cost of hiring the central city Community Art Gallery will also increase, as will fees for dog registrations and impounding, building warrants of fitness, the use of council sportsgrounds and landfill charges.
Most increases are small.
Some fees will remain unchanged, including the charge for senior citizens, beneficiaries and children swimming at Moana Pool.
Council staff acknowledged the increases would be unpopular, but argued they were necessary.
Community and recreation services manager Mick Reece said the increases helped cover the cost of providing sports-grounds and other facilities to clubs and the wider community.
Even with the increases, revenue from the charges amounted to just 7% of the $11.5 million total spend by the council's parks and reserves department.
The remaining 93% was met by ratepayers, he said.
"They [sports groups] know that this happens and they know it's coming. They don't enjoy it . . . but they understand it."
The costs were adjusted each year based on fluctuations in the construction cost index (CCI), which was used by the council to adjust multi-year contracts for inflation.
Council aquatic services manager Steve Prescott doubted small increases - such as a 50c rise in the cost of a casual adult swim, to $5.50 - would discourage people from taking a dip at Moana Pool.
"You can pay $5.50 to get into the pool and spend all day there. From that perspective, it's pretty cheap entertainment," he said.
"There are other things out there that are a lot more expensive."
The funding split agreed by councillors was the main reason for annual fee increases, although "quite substantial" increases in gas and electricity prices had contributed to the rising costs at the pool, he said.
Council chief building control officer Neil McLeod said building consent fees would rise 25% on average, with smaller increases for less expensive projects and larger increases for more expensive ones.
The extra revenue was needed to help offset a forecast $1.47 million shortfall in the 2009-10 budget, and to meet the cost of additional accreditation requirements the council's building control unit needed to meet, he said.
The council unit needed to begin implementing a new auditing regime to show it was checking its own work, in time for a review of its accreditation status in September, Mr McLeod said.
