Resident angry over ‘council madness’
Big Bay resident Rex Wright is furious over what he terms an ‘Auckland Council gone mad’ after he has been faced with close to $600 in bills, plus an extra $150 a year in inspection costs over his bio-cycle septic treatment system. Rex is one of many Franklin residents who have installed a bio-cycle system instead of the more traditonal septic tank in recent years. He built his property in 2004, obtaining a resource consent from the-then Franklin District Council, and satisfying the conditions on that consent. Recently, however, Rex says a council officer arrived at his property to monitor the resource consent conditions, and instructed him that he had to install a water meter on the biocycle, plus have an inspection done twice a year instead of annually, and also would be required to move the pipeline system back 20 metres. “If I move it back 20 metres, it ends up under my house,” Rex said last week. “It’s bloody ridiculous.” Rex says he can not understand any reason why there would be a requirement to fit a water meter to the system, pointing out that it can only be installed on bio-cycles because the traditional septic systems are just a drain, rather than a pump. “I told him there’s just as much water going back into the land as there has been for millions of years, because we’re on tanks, and so we are just operating on rainwater anyway,” Rex said. He is aware of a number of other landowners with biocycles in the area near his property who have been told the same thing, and wonders whether it is a precurser to council trying to charge for wastewater which is not part of the council system. The site visit by the council officer resulted in a bill for $415.00, an amount which Rex says is ludicrous. There is a $93 assessment charge, a $58 charge for travel time, $34 for the actual site visit, and $116 for ‘correspondence.” Rex says he thought the travel costs were excessive as the officer had seen several people on the same day, and adds that he contacted council to query the amounts charged. “They told me the travel cost for them sending someone from Auckland to Big Bay was $650 per day, which was then divided by the people he saw,” Rex said. The requirement to have the system inspected more often means Rex has to pay the $150 inspection fee twice a year instead of once, and he’s also had to fork out $170 for a water meter. He’s not happy, and he says he still has no idea what purpose the monitoring of the system is supposed to achieve.
Post Tuesday, October 1, 2013 • Vol 25, No. 37
21,200 copies weekly in Franklin, incl Waiuku, Pukekohe, Tuakau, Karaka, Waiau Pa and Awhitu
Glenbrook’s recipe for success
Budding young chefs at Glenbrook Primary School were delighted last week to discover that they had won their section in the Let’s cook with Parmco competition. Over 370 schools took part in the competition, which pitted schools against each other to create meals based on provided recipes and have
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What a stunning event! The CanTeen Bike Bash in Pukekohe raised over $40,000 for CanTeen and the Franklin Hospice. The Post was there, and PAGE we’ve captured the enthusiasm on camera.
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online votes in their category (200 299 pupils), and found out last week they had topped the lot. Above: a few members of the teams who produced the win for Glenbrook School; from left, Shanya Easson, Eaileen Cowley, Grace Christy, Brittany Liang and Travis Holland, all Year 7 pupils.
Cyclists raise $40,000
There was a surpise for the youngsters at a local after-school care programme when one of the stars of the television show Shortland Street PAGE dropped in to say hi and to sign a few autographs.
Last week we went searching for the best petrol prices in Franklin, and we asked how the local stations set their fuel prices to find out why PAGE there seems little competitiion.
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tuesday, october 1, 2013 PAGE 1
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