Recovery Mission with Mayor Len Salt
Written by John Freer on March 3, 2023
By John Freer
The region this week has been able to move into recovery mode from the eight weather events which started last November.
Thames Coromandel Mayor Len Salt spoke to CFM this week about that recovery. There is good and not so good news.
The Mayor tells us that he is pleased with the response from central government in terms of assisting with clean-up costs that his region and its ratepayers cannot afford.
The Mayoral Relief fund is now at $250,000 having been supported by the likes of Trust Waikato, Mitre 10 and local residents.
For those with properties along our foreshores there is no clear answers available yet other than the region is slightly ahead of the game due to work on the shoreline management plan.
Ratepayers are going to take a hit – cost escalations are being listed as reasons for a rating increase which as Mayor Len says, ratepayers wont welcome.
The full interview can be heard by clicking the link below.
Mary Roest On March 4, 2023 at 8:36 pm
It’s all very well the mayor saying that rates increases will be needed to pay for the damage to our area caused by the recent storm but many of us live on superannuation or limited income and struggle with high rates and cost of living already. Maybe it’s time the TCDC looked at cutting back their expenditure rather than increasing our rates every year. We moved here 15 yrs ago and even then rates were double what we’d paid in Hamilton and they’ve increased every year since.