Landfill fee hike proposed
The cost of dumping general waste at York Valley landfill needs to go up by 17% to make ends meet, the region’s councils have been warned.
But, while councillors warned landfill bosses to expect push-back on the hikes, they were told the belt had already been tightened as far as it could go, with much of the financial pressure coming from central government cost increases.
The Nelson Tasman Regional Landfill Business Unit operates landfills for both the Nelson City and Tasman District councils.
At an oversight meeting with representatives on Wednesday, general manager regional services Nathan Clarke presented a draft business plan for feedback.
In it, he said that central government’s Local Disposal Levy was increasing to $28 per tonne, and the Waste Minimisation Levy had gone up to $5 per tonne.
To offset the increase they were planning to run a deficit of $300,000 in the 2026-27 financial year, using funds from previous surpluses.
They would also increase general waste fees 17% from $266 per tonne to $311 per tonne.
“This deficit will not be able to be continued into the 2027-28 financial year as the accumulated surpluses would have been depleted, and therefore additional costs increases will occur in the 2027-28 landfill fees.”
Earlier in the meeting, he also warned that volumes of waste coming to the landfill were down, with 67,000 tonnes of waste – excluding the contaminated Tāhunanui sawdust – taken, 6000 tonnes down on budget.
Less waste meant they would need to increase gate fees to cover costs, Clarke said.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Nelson City Council deputy chief executive Alec Louverdis said the increased gate fees at the landfill would have a spin-off effect for fees at the council’s transfer recovery stations.
“There’s a consequence that we need to look at what we increase our fees by at our transfer recovery stations.”
The news came as the meeting also agreed that fees for class 3 contaminated waste at Eves Valley be reduced from $164 per tonne to $95 per tonne.
Nelson councillor Mel Courtney warned that increasing one fee while slashing another wasn’t a good look.
“I don’t like it.”
But, Clarke said the lower fee would lead to increased volumes, and therefore more revenue than if they kept the fee at $165 per tonne.
“If I put it back, York Valley’s going to go up, not down.”
The “bulk” of the increase was due to outside pressures beyond the business unit’s control, and “there’s not a lot of levers we have to pull”, he said.
“I can try and tighten the belt as much as we can … I have already done that and got the price to where it is.”
The draft plan will now go to the two councils for feedback, but Tasman deputy mayor Stuart Bryant warned that his colleagues were likely to push back on the fee increases.
Tasman councillor Trindi Walker said the increase “isn’t very palatable”.
“We need to know exactly where these extra costs are coming from so we can front this conversation.”
By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail
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