Wainui pensioners fear they will forced out
Thursday, 24 April, 2008

Wainui Beach pensioners say they will be forced out of their homes if the proposed plan for reticulation goes ahead.

One superannuitant who has lived on the beachfront in Murphy Road since long before Wainui beachfront homes became fashionable, says he is faced with costs far in excess of anything so far quoted in relation to the council's proposal to reticulate the coastal community.

The man, who wishes to retain his privacy, says the $2000 annual rates bill cited for Wainui, fa lls about $2000 short of his annual rates bill of just over $4000.

Most other beachfront residents will be paying the same or more, so he says some will be paying up to $9000 a year unless they can pay the $26,000 reticulation cost up-front.

In his case, he is also looking at a $15,000 bill for rock protection work at the southern end of the beach.

He has been told by a councillor that Wainui Beach ratepayers would also be paying $800 a year towards the new city sewage treatment plant, once they were connected to it.

Although he believes reticulation will one day be inevitable, he also knows few people could afford to pay up to $10,000 a year to the council.

He believes most of the figures quoted by the council are "airy fairy".

The fact that the cost of the city's new sewerage scheme has ballooned from $39 million to $90 million sounds to him like incompetence on the council's part.

Another pensioner in the same area fears the council will drive her out of the home she has lived in for 38 years.

At 82, the woman lives alone in a house she and her husband built in 1970. At that time the section cost $3600 and the building project cost just over $15,000.

Her husband died 10 years ago and her sole income today is her pension, which amounts to $691.54 a fortnight after tax. She has no other income or investments.

Her present annual rates demand is $1622.55, less a superannuitant rebate of $500.

She tries to be as self-sufficient as possible by growing all her own vegetables, seldom buys new clothes and is unable to afford much maintenance on her home.

Her house was appraised by a real estate agent three months ago as worth around $460,000. She has looked at the prospect of selling the house and moving to town, or a rest home, but is unable to find a solution that would work for her.

She does not want to leave the community she loves, the house she and her husband built and the large garden that is now the focus of her life, where she works to keep active and challenge the difficulties of old age.

She is widely regarded as a Wainui Beach elder who is an integral part of the fabric of the coastal community

But the increase in rates brought about by the costs of reticulation, estimated at upwards of $5000 per year, along with other proposed increases, would leave her in an impossible situation. The prospect is causing her worry and affecting her health.

"It will be impossible for me to continue living here. I'm just hanging on by the skin my of teeth as it is. It is only my stubbornness that keeps me going."

As a community-minded person, she is worried the pressures that could force her to leave the beach she loves threaten to change a way of life for the entire community.

"I am just not allowing myself to believe it will happen. I don't believe it is possible that the councillors could vote to ruin the community in this way. It's a time to be thinking of self-sufficiency, keeping Wainui the special place that it is.

"Not rushing into new development that could destroy one of the few natural New Zealand beach communities remaining."

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