A senior council staff member in the Tasman District has challenged the council over the repayment of development levies to the creator of a subdivision, which he believes should have been paid to the property owners within it.
The council dropped from its budget this year a planned coastal pipeline development that would have serviced the subdivision.
Michael Croxford, who is the council's principal resource consents adviser, and also one of the property owners in the subdivision, says individual owners should have been refunded - instead of the developer - because they would have contributed to the cost in the purchase price of their sections.
In the public forum of a recent council meeting, Mr Croxford said the individual owners would have contributed to the cost in the purchase price of their sections, which in his case would have been more than $7000.
But a senior Tasman District Council manager says the refunded levies have rightfully been returned to the developer, and not individual property owners.
The council's head of environment and planning Dennis Bush-King said it acted on advice that the money should be returned to the party who paid the contribution.
