LIFESTYLER
September 3 2013
Kaipara
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Ratepayers in High Court win by Paul Campbell
The Kaipara District Council has failed in an attempt to have a ratepayer’s court challenge to its decisions struck out and costs have been awarded against it.
Talented young artists
The annual Ray White Dargaville Jean Johnson Realty children’s drawing competition …
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Hi-tech hospital service now on line
Dargaville Hospital has taken another hi-tech step into the world of 21st century medicine …
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White water and weta!
Senior students from Ruawai College visited the Outdoor Pursuits Centre at Tongariro National Park …
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As a result a court review will examine all council decisions that led to the $80 million debt resulting from the ill-fated Mangawhai sewerage scheme at a new five day hearing. The decision is expected to cast a shadow over the Kaipara District Council (Validation of Rates and other Matters) Bill, currently before parliament, and subject of a submissions hearing in Kaipara last week. The Mangawhai Residents and Ratepayers Association applied to the High Court for a judicial review of decisions linked to the debt that led to the Kaipara District Council being dismissed and run by commissioners and to parliament being asked to validate illegal council rates. Justice Paul Heath has dismissed the KDC call for the MRRA application to be struck out and awarded costs in favour of the association, and will hold a case management conference midway through September to arrange for what is expected to be a five-day review hearing at a date to be set. MRRA chairman, Bruce Rogan, said following the court decision that it was possible MPs could push through the Bill to validate council actions but expected public outrage if the government quashed a review that the High Court said had merit. “This would have ramifications for the entire country,” he said. “This is a tremendous vindication of our petition. The judge is clearly saying the council has a case to answer.”
The Rogan family generations assessing the court decision: from left Mrs Heather Rogan, granddaughter Colette Morrison, Bruce Rogan, Lennox Morrison, son-in-law Scott Morrison and Natalie Morrison
Justice Heath’s judgement was published last Friday and recognised irregularities in the rate-fixing processes, “so much so that the Member of Parliament for Northland has promoted a local bill that is designed, if enacted, to validate the council’s actions. “This proceeding demonstrates how badly things can go wrong when a democratically elected council assumes significant financial obligations to an arm’s-length third party without disclosing the extent of the borrowing to its ratepayers.” Mr Rogan said his association members had spent some $100,000 on the case so far. “The commissioners’ position that their rates demands are lawful has been
demolished. Both sides agreed in front of the judge that the rates demands were invalid.” Chair of the KDC commissioners, John Robertson said they had received the decision but had not yet had time to review it.” We will be reviewing this in detail over the next few days and will be taking further advice from our legal counsel. “The reason that we sought a strike out of part of the claim was because the law is quite clear with respect to bank debt, that this is a ‘protected transaction’ and therefore a judicial review of this matter is pointless. The judge did not rule on this matter — he said he wanted to hear more arguments from each counsel of this at the full hearing.”
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