New FNDC maritime facilities bylaw - ATTENTION EVERYONE IN FAR NORTH

[syohana 37]

 

I'm writing to mooring owners, boating clubs and commercial vessel operators in the Far North to draw your attention to the proposed new FNDC bylaw targeting us and ask you all to please make submissions on it.

 

This by-law gives the council unlimited control over commercial users of FNDC landings, wharves and boat ramps without any accountability. The new bylaw seems to have been designed to give the council extra powers for the purpose of taking revenge on me and my boat hire business after I prosecuted a council official who had abused council powers to attack me, but it will affect all users of FNHL and FNDC wharves, jetties and boat ramps.

 

The council has made no secret that the purpose of the new bylaw is to attack commercial users of marine facilities, HOWEVER, it quietly abolishes the current bylaw which stipulates that every mooring owner in the Far North pays $25 per year to FNDC which is collected by NRC annually together with the other mooring license fees and then passed to FNDC.

 

That $25 is ringfenced to pay for services at public wharves, particularly the drinking water supply provided at Waipapa landing, Stone Store and other locations for the use of moored boats. There is nothing about those services in the new bylaw and no ringfencing of the fees collected under the new bylaw. If the old bylaw is abolished then the council could remove the water taps from the wharves.

 

Even more important, the current $25 annual fee on all moorings gives all mooring owners the legal status of "ratepayers" and access to FNDC council services. This is essential for live-aboards and important for all mooring owners.

 

The council are hoping to sneak this important change through and didn't mention it at all in their announcements. Please make sure everyone writes a submission.

 

If mooring owners are no longer going to be ratepayers then the "mooring owners and ratepayers association" might need a change of name - we don't all own land! If you have a mooring and you're not already a member please consider joining at https://www.russellcommonsense.com/ because Klaus has been doing good work representing the interests of mooring owners against the council.

 

Here's the FNDC announcement - note the bizarre presumption that for some unstated reason recreational users should always have priority over commercial ones in what have traditionally been commercial facilities:

https://www.fndc.govt.nz/Whats-new/Latest-news/Commercial-operators-at-centre-of-proposed-maritime-bylaw

 

The proposed new bylaw:

https://www.fndc.govt.nz/files/assets/public/v/2/objectivedocuments/policy-and-planning-pol/bylaws/maritime-facilities/proposal-maritime-facilities-bylaw-2022.pdf

 

The artificial attempt to make a distinction between recreational and commercial users makes no sense - in fact most commercial vessels such as charter yachts and boat hire are recreational vessels. Extra costs for commercial vessels will have to be passed on to the recreational customers who hire vessels and are less able to afford it than recreational boaters who own their own vessel - it's a tax on the poor.

 

The council assumes that for some unstated reason recreational users who own a boat should have priority over commercial users who create employment and make boating accessible to everyone, including those who can't afford to own their own boat or are too elderly to launch a boat themselves. No explanation whatsoever is given for the assumption that recreational users should be prioritised, nor is any reason given why recreational users who hire a boat are to be banned or charged fees while recreational users who own their boat are not.

 

The wharves and boat ramps are mostly legal roads themselves. Navigable rivers are also legally "roads" along which anyone can travel without hindrance. In terms of the law, the wharves and boat ramps are simply junctions in the road network where the mode of transport changes and along which everyone has the right to pass. For most of the history of Kerikeri there were no roads inland and all traffic to other places passed through the wharves which have historically always been primarily commercial facilities, for example passengers and goods at the Stone Store wharf and timber at Waipapa landing where the old tramway delivered it to be towed away by commercial vessels. The legality of restricting access to parts of the road network in this way is very questionable, especially when the council now wants to give themselves the power to deny access to any commercial user they hold a grudge against, without accountability.

 

At the least, the requirements and costs for commercial vessels to use the facilities need to be clearly set out and consistently applied to both commercial and recreational vessels.

 

We all need to use commercial operators to maintain our moorings and it will become impossible if they need written permission in advance and fees to pay before launching vessels or loading materials at public wharves and boat ramps. It can take months to get written permission (or not) from the council and sometimes commercial operators need access at short notice.

 

There are many live-aboards on moorings in the river who rely on the drinking water supply at the jetties to fill their tanks and provision of those services needs to be guaranteed. Purely recreational users also need to fill their tanks with drinking water, even for day trips.

 

For contrast you can see the old, relatively sane bylaws here:

https://www.fndc.govt.nz/files/assets/public/v/1/objectivedocuments/governance-and-executive-management-gem/bylaws/maritime-facilities/maritime-facilities-bylaw-2002.pdf

https://www.fndc.govt.nz/files/assets/public/v/1/objectivedocuments/governance-and-executive-management-gem/bylaws/mooring-charges/mooring-charges-bylaw-2002.pdf

 

The main factor of interest to mooring owners will be the abolition of the annual rates on moorings, which were ringfenced to pay for facilities at the wharves including drinking water for mooring owners. Mooring owners (including commercial ones) rely on the public ramps and jetties to access their moorings, denying them the use of those facilities would deny them access to their moorings.

 

As a boat hire operator who has been the victim of a long running vendetta against my business and my family by staff in the FNDC legal department (one of whom has lost his job there and is now facing criminal charges) I would be very grateful for everyone's support on the other aspects affecting commercial users, even though they may not impact you personally.

 

Commercial users should all oppose this strongly please - even if you currently have friends at the council who will grant you access on reasonable terms, council staff change frequently and the new bylaw allows them to pull the plug and destroy your business at any time without notice. It will become impossible to operate a marine business in the Far North which relies on any public facility if the council can pull the plug any time without notice.

 

Please note that the definition of "maritime facility" includes the Bay of Islands Marina (Opua marina) so it looks like all commercial vessels (including hired boats) will be banned from there too unless they have special written permission from the council and if they do get permission they can be charged unlimited extra fees to use it. Commercial vessels will also require special written permission and may need to pay unlimited arbitrary fees to use any of the FNDC/FNHL controlled fuel docks such as those at Opua, Russell and Paihia. This includes visiting commercial vessels from overseas and outside the Far North who will need to apply for written permission in advance before docking at any council facility.But how will they know that? Crazy!

 

Besides making submissions in the consultation, please could everyone contact your councillors, community board members and the mayor so that they can help put a stop to this. Certain council and FNHL staff have clearly already decided to push this through, they pretend to do a consultation and will probably ignore the response but the elected councillors and mayor can still put a stop to this.

 

The existing bylaws are functioning perfectly well, the existing commercial use of these facilities doesn't pose a problem to anyone and nobody is complaining about it. The right thing to do is to retain the two existing bylaws and not waste council resources on creating these ill-considered new laws. The existing bylaws already provide clearly defined, affordable fees for commercial users with a clear application process and rules requiring the council to grant the permits on application.

 

Please don't forget to pass this on to all your contacts who might be affected by the new bylaw.

 

Many thanks for your support and best wishes,

Chris