A Mosgiel man says he will potentially be hit with a rise in his rates for flooding and drainage when his property has not flooded in 40 years. Alister Forgie said he received a pamphlet from the Otago Regional Council at the weekend around proposed changes to his drainage and flood protection rates. He looked it up and got a shock. “I’m paying nothing for drainage and $20 for flood protection in the 25-26 year. For the 26-27 year they’re asking $12 for drainage and $159 for flood protection. So mine’s going to go from $20 to $171,” he said. He said some properties have a “tag” on them and he had an engineering tag, whatever that was. “I live in Doon St.I’ve been here for 50 years, and we’ve never had any flooding in that period of time.” He had talked to others in Mosgiel and they had increases of around the same and some more. Mr Forgie said regional council staff had been obliging when talking to them and he was waiting for an explanation. “But you’ve got a lot of people on superannuation, and you take another $171 a year off them — well that’s your bloody grocery bill for a week.” He was worried about the impact on his insurance, and costs would increase. He wondered what flood zone he was in. The regional council said in a statement flood protection and drainage rates would change for many urban and rural properties on the Clutha and Taieri flood and drainage schemes if proposed changes went ahead. Council science and resilience general manager Tom Dyer said changes were being proposed to better reflect who benefits — the changes would mean the amount properties pay for rates will depend on the level of benefit they get from the scheme. “Depending on location and the benefits received, targeted rates would change, and some could be added or removed from scheme boundaries,“ he said. Generally, urban properties would see an increase in cost which better reflected the benefits they receive, while many rural properties would see a decrease, he said. Flood and drainage rates would be separated and would be charged to better reflect the benefit that each property receives. Drainage rates would be based on the size of property, land use, and how that land use affects the drainage network. The proposal followed concerns raised from some parts of the schemes about the fairness of targeted rate collection. The council had examples which showed a $500,000 property in Mosgiel would have the targeted rate change from $30 to $140 while a similar priced property in Outram would go from $720 to $140. In Balclutha, it would go from $510 to $590. The council was set to have two public sessions in Balclutha on Thursday and then have a public session next Monday and then one in Outram next Tuesday. Submissions can be made on the proposal and will close on September 11.
