Schedule of user fees and charges
User Fees and Charges
As part of the Long-term Plan 2024-2034 we carried out a comprehensive review of our User Fees and Charges to ensure our services are fair and equitable. Our Financial Strategy takes a user pays approach where possible, so we carefully consider who the users are and who benefits from natural resource use.
Where appropriate, costs incurred for Council activities that are carried out mainly to benefit consent holders are largely apportioned to them, rather than the general ratepayer.
Our current fees and charges are set out in our ‘Schedule of User Fees and Charges’.
Payment options
There are several convenient options available to pay your annual invoice. You can pay via any of the options below.
Payment option | Details |
Internet banking or at any Westpac Branch | You can make a one-off payment using online banking. Our details are: Name: West Coast Regional Council Account No.: 03 0846 0121500 02 Please enter your account number from the top right hand corner of the invoice. |
Telephone banking | As per the details set out above. |
Our office | Call into our office at 388 Main South Road, Greymouth. We are open from 8.30am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday. EFTPOS facilities are available. |
Frequently asked questions
Annual consent holder administration fee
Q. Why has the administration fee for holding a resource consent increased?
A. Section 35 of the Resource Management Act 1991 requires Councils to gather information, monitor and keep records. The increase in fee is to recover the costs of these activities. It includes, but is not limited to, staff time, the costs of maintenance and upgrade to systems, consents and compliance databases and the ongoing IT support and expertise related to this.
Q. Can I surrender my resource consent?
A. Yes. If you no longer undertake the consented activity you can surrender your consent. A surrender form is available on Council’s website www.wcrc.govt.nz under Consents and Compliance. There is no cost to surrendering a resource consent. If Council staff assess that the consent can be surrendered immediately, then the invoice or part of the invoiced amount, depending on when the surrender form was submitted, can also be waived.
Gravel monitoring fee
Q.Why do I pay this fee?
A. This fee applies to anyone holding a consent for gravel extraction. The fee is for the monitoring of your gravel extraction resource consent conditions. The set monitoring fee spreads the cost across all consent holders so that the Council can undertake and maintain a gravel monitoring regime and to recover the costs associated with the monitoring.
Q.What does council fund through its set gravel fee?
A. A set fee of $0.25 per cubic metre on the consented gravel take volume will apply to all consents 100m3 or greater to fund monitoring for the broader impacts of gravel takes, for example river cross-sections, beach surveys, research and analysis.
Q.If I don’t use my gravel consent for a particular location will I still get invoiced the monitoring fee and the levy fee?
A. Yes you will still be invoiced for both the monitoring fee and the levy fee whether you action your consent or not. However, you can surrender your consent, or parts of it, if your consent covers multiple locations and you do not intend to extract at that location. See the answer above for the surrender of consents in the consent holder’s administration section.
Water Take set fee
Q. What is the Water Take set fee?
A. The Government regulations for Measuring and Reporting Water Takes require anyone with a resource consent who takes water at a rate of 5 litres per second or more to measure and record their water take. The regulations also require Council to have systems in place to record and monitor this water take information which is to be submitted by consent holders. The new Water Take set fee recover costs associated with, but not limited to, the costs for new IT systems to be implemented to record and monitor this information, as well as staff time to review and monitor data.
Q.Where can I find more information on the regulations?
A. More information on the regulations can be found on Council’s website www.wcrc.govt.nz under ‘Essential Freshwater’.
Consents and selling your business
Q.Do I still have to pay my consent if I sell the business it is for?
A. If your business holds a consent(s), you are liable for the consent until it is either surrendered or transferred to the new owner. This is a process your lawyer should undertake for you as part of the Sale and Purchase Agreement but it can be overlooked and you may need to address this separately.
Still have questions?
If we haven’t answered your question above or you want to find out more, you can contact us:
- Email info@wcrc.govt.nz
- Phone 0508 800 118
