From The Regional Ratepayers Rebellion

- Supported by Ratepayer Associations, Community groups and other organisation and individuals throughout the Auckland region - initiated and co-ordinated by....

GLENFIELD RATEPAYERS & RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION (INC)

UPDATE FROM David Thornton.

AUDITOR - GENERAL :PROPOSAL TO MPs :WHAT TO PAY QUESTIONS.

I have today spoken with the Auditor-General Kevin Brady requesting an update on our request for an investigation into the way the Auckland regional Council set its rates.

Mr Brady informed me that a wide-range of issues had been raised with his office and a very detailed investigation under way.

Officers from his organisation have already visited the ARC offices and collected a considerable number of documents.

Mr Brady hopes to have a draft report available towards the end of next week.

We are currently preparing a detailed proposal on how the ARC can reset its rates and I will be putting that to tomorrow's meeting of Auckland MPs at the Bruce Mason Centre in Takapuna.

We are doing this as part of our determined campaign to have the rates reset to acceptable levels.

I have taken over 200 calls in the last 24 hours asking for advice on how to pay, if to pay or what to pay.

The ten cheques/nine post-dated seems to a favourite option - and I am warning people that they may still get penalised with a 10% penalty added to ninety percent of their bill.

Callers to the ARC are being told to pay in full - the only exception being that the ARC will accept Direct Debit over 10 months.

Meanwhile I have many reports of people going into post shops and paying only ten percent.

ENDS - Contact David Thornton for further info. Details above. Chairman; David Thornton 77 Hillcrest Avenue, Northcote, NORTH SHORE CITY david@kandu.co.nz Thursday, 31 July 2003

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