Horowhenua District Council is proposing to set a range of fees to apply for:
- Food Businesses that are subject to the Food Act 2014;
- Resource Consenting (Planning) Services, Resource Management Act 1991.
These proposed fees will apply for the 2022/2023 financial year, commencing 1 July 2022.
Council resolved to consult on these fees at its ordinary meeting on 13 April 2022, using the Special Consultative Procedure as laid out in the Local Government Act 2002.
Food Act 2014, Food Businesses Fees
The Food Act 2014 (the Act), section 205(1) enables the Council, by resolution, to fix fees to recover direct and indirect costs of any registration, verification, compliance and monitoring functions performed under the Act, after using the Special Consultative Procedure as set out in section 83 of the Local Government Act 2002.
Recovering costs in this manner recognises the benefit to the direct user of the service whilst also recognising the public benefit for the community in relation to the functions performed. This aligns with Council’s Revenue and Financing Policy, which identifies that in funding regulatory services functions, the majority of funds should be sourced through fees with a minority funded through general rates.
Resource Consenting (Planning) Services Fees
The Resource Management Act 1991, section 36(2) provides the Council with the ability to fix fees to recover the direct and indirect costs of Council’s functions under the Act, through the use of the Special Consultative Procedure.
Recovering costs in this manner recognises the benefit to the direct user of the service, while also recognising the public benefit for the community in relation to the functions performed. This aligns with Council’s Revenue and Financing Policy, which identifies that in funding regulatory services functions, the majority of funds should be sourced through fees with a minority funded through general rates.
In fixing fees under Section 36 of the RMA a Local Authority is required to have regard to the requirement that the sole purpose of the charge is to recover reasonable costs incurred by the local authority in respect of the activity to which the charge relates, and a particular person or persons should only be required to pay a charge to the extent that the benefit of the local authority’s actions to which the charge relates is obtained by those persons as distinct from the community of the local authority as a whole.
The Statement of Proposal and Summary of Information documents are available under 'Related Information'.
Phone enquiries can be made to Council's Customer Service Centre on 06 366 0999.
Submissions on the proposal closed at 5pm on Friday, 13 May 2022.