It costs a lot of money to maintain our roading network and while receive some subsidy funding from NZTA, the remainder of the costs are covered by the money we receive from rates.

For roading, we spread the cost across different categories of ratepayers, with some ratepayers paying a greater share than others. Usually rating differentials reflect who benefits from the services (those who benefit more, pay for more). This difference in who pays how much is referred to as a 'differential'.

Feilding residents' rates cover 33% of the council's costs for maintaining roading infrastructure, and rural residents' rates cover 53% (the remainder is covered by other ratepayer categories). However, rural roads account for 89% of our roading infrastructure cost - and this means that Feilding residents are paying to maintain rural roads that they infrequently use.

We think we should change this so that rural residents are paying a more equitable share of the costs.

The options we're proposing

  • Keep things as they are

    Make no changes to the current differentials, with Feilding residents paying proportionately more than rural ratepayers.

  • ​Remove the current differential completely

    This would spread the cost of roading equally across all ratepayers resulting in Feilding ratepayers paying slightly less than they do now (about $2.50 per week), and rural ratepayers paying slightly more (about $1.76 per week)*.

  • Remove current differential gradually over 3 years

    Council's preferred option

    We like this option because we are working towards a more equitable system for roading costs, but there is no sharp increase to rural ratepayers - the increase would be phased in gradually. However of course, this would also mean that the reduction to Feilding ratepayers would also be slower and more gradual.

*To provide an 'apples for apples' comparison in the options within this section, we use the median property Capital Value across all ratepayer categories (excluding Defence properties) - this value is $660,000. Please see our Consultation Document for a full explanation of how we have worked out these indicative rates based on median capital property value.

Which option do you prefer?

Let us know by completing our submission form