The Marlborough District Council wants to ask commercial boat operators and ratepayers to help carry the cost of its health, safety and navigation obligations in the Marlborough Sounds.The council must review any bylaws made before July 2003 to determine whether they are still necessary and meet the purpose they were designed for.
It has decided not to change the Navigation Bylaw 2000 which forces fast ferries to cut their speeds in the Sounds.
However, it is proposing changes to the Navigation Bylaw 2002 to meet what it has been told are statutory obligations to cover the cost of health, safety and navigation in the Marlborough Sounds.
The council had lobbied central government for help with those costs, arguing that the Marlborough Sounds were essentially an extension of the state highway system because of the Interislander ferries. Its request was rejected.
Councillor Graeme Taylor said the council was left with no option but to use a bylaw to impose charges to help cover the costs.
It was not considered feasible to recover fees from recreational harbour users as recreational boaties included such a variety of users.
Mr Taylor said recreational users' share of the costs would be drawn from general rates, but just how much this would affect rates was yet to be determined.
The proposal would see commercial users levied on a scale relating to gross tonnage, boat length and passenger numbers.
The new scale of proposed fees applying to commercial harbour users is included in the updated bylaw, Navigation Bylaw 2009.
The public has until March 27 to make submissions on the project, but commercial operators spoken to by The Express were not pleased about the proposal.
Chris Godsiff, the owner of Marlborough Travel, said commercial tourism companies were "sucking the bad end of a lemon" with tourism starting to drop but the costs on operators increasing.
New Zealand had a problem with limitations being put on qualified people while those who did not know port from starboard were left alone, he said.
"It gets very lopsided when only one part of the equation is paying for it (safety)," Mr Godsiff said.
Beachcomber Cruises owner Tony Crapper said he was opposed to commercial operators having to help pay for harbour safety.
"We are already paying enough fees for the likes of lights and the buoy system.
"
From what I can gather they want to put more navigational lights in the Sounds which I doubt any commercial operators need as we have our own systems," he said.
Mark Evans, of Cougar Line, said the new bylaw had been coming a long time and was fought off a year or two ago.
"They were going to slam us with such high charges it would have made us commercially unviable.
"Since then there has been a review but there has been no paperwork from the council.
"I am on the board of the Marine Transport Association and it seems unfair to me that we should pay. The question is how much is it going to be?"
The issue will be discussed when the association next meets in February.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4824420a6008.html
So - basically - the want the commercial operators to pay for the twits who dont "
know port from starboard".
Somethings a bit wrong with that don't you reckon?