A Bay View lifestyle block owner who felt he was being forced from his land by a proposal to increase his rural residential rates is “more than happy” the Napier City Council has changed its mind.
At a meeting on Thursday, the council voted to backtrack on two proposed changes in its Annual Plan – a planned removal of the “rural residential” rates category and a change to the way CCTV monitoring was paid for in the CBD.
Robert Best, who lives with his wife in their Onehunga Road home, had estimated the removal of rural residential rates would mean they would be paying a 16% increase this year, instead of the forecast average 8.8% increase the council had flagged earlier this year.
“I’m more than happy, and I hope they never bring it up again,” Best said on Friday.
Although the council voted unanimously to retain the current rural residential rating differential at 90% of the residential general rate, “it may review it again” as part of the 2027–37 Long Term Plan.
