Aggressive work by Clutha District Council staff in recent months has seen the amount of rates arrears owing to the local authority drop by several hundreds of thousands of dollars.
At the start of this financial year, nearly $560,000 in rates were still owed around the district but the figure, as of this month, was now $104,283.
Rates/property officer Pauline Ellis, in a report to Thursday's corporate services committee, said staff had managed to recover nearly $560,000 in arrears since last July.
Just over half of the money still owed ($57,543) is from new rural water scheme consumers who were asked to provide a one-off capital contribution rate.
"There are still five properties which are not connected, hence the outstanding amount,'' Mrs Ellis said. ``The rural debts are reasonably small and apart from a few properties that are awaiting abandoned land action, we should recover the majority of them before the end of the rating year [July 1, 2008].''
The next-largest group of rates arrears, making up 15% or $15,273, was in Kaitangata where both small and large amounts were outstanding.
One property, a deceased estate, owed $4500 in rates which Mrs Ellis hoped would be settled once probate was granted but another debt of $7200 would require legal action. This had become a "regular process'' with the ratepayer concerned.
A parcel of abandoned land, owing $1500, was to be tendered later in the year.
Clinton had two large debts and several smaller ones in the $4380 owed. One property, with a demolition order recently placed on it, had arrears of $2000 while the Clinton Tennis Club and council were involved in talks over the club's arrears of $1100.
A breakdown of rates arrears in other parts of the district includes:
Waihola: $8635.60, Milton: $412.85, Lawrence: $80.10, Tapanui: $3033.55, Balclutha: $2117.19, Owaka: $313, Kaka Point: $693.80.
