Some commercial fishermen at the West Coast fishing port of Jackson Bay have been warned they could be trespassed from using the bay's "rickety" wharf.
Westland Property Ltd, acting for the Westland District Council, has sent out final demands for wharf levy arrears and general manager Bruce Smith told the Otago Daily Times this week if fishermen did not pay up, "then the next step will be that they are advised their licence to occupy is cancelled and they will not be able to use the wharf".
Mr Smith said trespass notices were being prepared and would soon be served.
The property company is attempting to recover about $166,000 of levies that have not been paid in the past four years.
The money is required for urgent repairs to the wharf.
Mr Smith said of 44 fishermen who had been billed, 35 or 36 had paid, two had gone out of business and the rest still had to pay.
One of them owing $30,000 had sent a cheque for $2000, which was returned, another owing $22,000 had offered $8000, and one owing $20,000 had not responded. It is understood among those who have not yet agreed to pay the full amount are the owners of two boats that sank this year.
One of those, who owed about $10,000, told the ODT he paid last week, but Westland Properties told the ODT it had received no payment from him.
Mr Smith considered those who had not paid were "playing games".
"The common thread is that they all come from far away. They are fishermen from Invercargill, Wanaka or somewhere else and [locals] believe they are coming in, overfishing the resource, not paying their bills and buggering off."
Westland crayfishers are represented by the CRA8 management committee. Chief executive Malcolm Lawson yesterday said his members were not refusing to pay but disputed the amount they owed.
The crayfishers believed the required levy was $100 per tonne of crayfish landed at the wharf but the property company was insisting on a levy of $300.
Mr Lawson said he was attempting to set up a meeting between crayfishers and the council.
Wharf user Geoff Robson, of nearby Neils Beach, said he had paid his company's arrears of more than $40,000.
"We put our money where our mouth is. We want the wharf."
Mr Robson said the wharf was "rickety" and he considered it was in a "sad" state.
"The whole wharf structure's moving, so that's loosened all the planking and so, sooner or later, someone's going to go through the wharf with a forklift or a vehicle, and that could close the wharf."
He considered action taken by Westland Properties in the past three months was "pretty positive" and more than had been done in the past 20 years.
