Agriculture
NZ Council to Charge Forestry for Road Damage
by timberbiz
After reporting a five-year spend of nearly NZ$1.5 million on repairing roads damaged by logging trucks, a Taranaki council is looking to charge forestry owners more to save ratepayers footing the bill.
The Stratford District Council said costs to repair the unsealed roads in eastern Taranaki during forest harvest has averaged NZ$292,120 a year, seeing other roading projects in the district grind to a halt.
Mayor Neil Volzke said it was an “almost critical situation”, and something needed to be done.
Last week, at a policy and services committee meeting, Stratford elected members moved to have a new roading targeted rate introduced for “exotic forestry” owners from July 1 to cover the cost of damage caused during harvesting.
The council intends to collect NZ$100,000 annually, and the amount each forestry owner pays towards that is decided by their property’s capital value.
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