Accept new rate or dirty beaches - Auckland Mayor

From Checkpoint, 6:12 pm on 15 March 2018

Auckland mayor Phil Goff is urging people to support a proposed tax which would help clean up Auckland's unswimmable beaches.

The city's beaches are so dirty that ocean swimming events are now regularly being cancelled, and surf lifesavers are refusing to work at events at any beaches that aren't officially clean. 

Yesterday there were 25 no swim notices around Auckland, nearly forty per cent of all monitored beaches.

Sixteen of those warnings are long-standing and have no end date.

The problem is being caused by storm-water and sewerage overflows because the city's system is not coping with demand.

The council has proposed a targeted rate of about $1.30 a week per household, which would fund water infrastructure to help clean up the city's harbours and beaches.

The council said that could reduce wastewater overflows into Auckland's waterways by between 80 and 90 per cent.

Auckland mayor Phil Goff said without the targeted rate it would take the council 30 years to fund the infrastructure needed but with the rate it could be done in 10 years.

"The rate will give us another $400 million.

"It will still take 10 years because we have to build the central intercepter which is going to cost $1 billion and 13km of tunnel," he said.

"Its a massive engineering job, we are putting it out to tender at the moment and we will start construction on that next year."

In the first week of submissions the council received 2,839 responses, of which 66 percent were in favour of the rate, Mr Goff said.

Consultation closes on March 28.