Whangarei District Council - Whangarei District Council 7 Rust Avenue

Good experience re: property enquiry. Helpful pleasant staff.

They made me wait for 15 min I ended up hanging up Also they done a lousy job at the end of my property hence only 2 star

I have been waiting five and a half months for a simple valuation objection. despite irrefutable evidence in support of my objection. Using Opteon is a farce !

Recycling Nightmare - 3 weeks of my life I'll never get back Hi Anyone else perplexed that their recycling isn’t being collected at the roadside? It turns out that in our area Far North District Council and Whangarei District Council and Northland waste (who collect/reject our recycling) all have a part to play. My red bin hasn’t been collected for the past 2 weeks and I have been trying to find out what I’m doing wrong. It has taken me several hours of phoning and emailing to get to the bottom of it. I have rang and left messages that haven’t been returned and emails that have been left unanswered for over a week. This is not a big issue, it shouldn’t take this long to sort it. Yesterday I finally had had enough. I sent an email to all stakeholders (one of the directors of Northland waste, the chief executive of Far North District Council and Whangarei District Council plus several other office/admin emails). I have now had had 3 responses:- •Northland waste customer services have finally given me the correct answer after first contacting them 2 weeks ago •A director of Northland waste phoned and left a message (it shouldn’t take the input of a director to get the customer service ball rolling) •A senior manager in Far North District Council It seems to me there is a lot of buck passing here and a fair amount of confusion. Recycling should be a simple and ethical process that everyone can do easily wherever they live. This has not been the case for me. It has taken me several weeks to get the right answer as to why my recycling wasn't being collected So why am I making such a fuss when it’s not really that big an issue? Well, that's the point, it shouldn't be a big issue - but between Northland Waste, Far North District Council and Whangarei District council, they have put systems in place which are not simple to follow. I have wasted several hours of my life trying to get the right answer to a very simple question and that IS a big issue to me. My time is precious, as is yours I suspect. And it’s not just me, on the drive back from town yesterday I passed 5 red bins on the highway that hadn't been emptied - these residents clearly didn't know the rules either! So to enlighten you confused residents and residents who have just moved to Northland wondering where on earth you have just moved to):- •I live within the boundary of Far North District Council - I fall under their jurisdiction •There is a roadside recycling collection available as listed on the FNDC website provided by Northland waste •FNDC make it clear they do not contract out Northland waste services •It turns out that WDC contract out to Northland Waste •WDC set the rules for what can and cannot be recycled (even for rubbish that is collected by Northland waste in FNDC region) •Neither Northland waste or FNDC provide ANY guidelines about what can be put in these red bins •Only a flyer from WDC finally answers these questions (incidentally WDC - those sticky labels the rubbish guys stick to the red bins at the roadside which don't match up to your rules don't include the bit about keeping the cardboard separate and outside the bin) With more people moving to Northland and more recycling building up on the street wouldn’t it be a good idea for WDC, FNDC and Northland waste to get their heads together and provide clear complete information on their websites, flyers and sticky roadside labels.

Forum north and Laurie Hall carparks, desperate need of some undercover car parking.

I called Whangarei district council for noise control at midnight. They said: “oh there was another neighbour complaining the same property. “ Then the council did NOTHING. Well done Whangarei district council!! If you are not doing anything to help taxpayers, why bother have a noise control team?

We needed to clear a fence line between us and our neighbor. The line was approx 300 meters long and had several Totara trees on it. It made sense to cut the trees down to make a clean line rather than fence around them. We were warned by someone to be very careful when cutting down Totaras as they are a native tree. There were stories out there of people getting fined for cutting down Totaras. We thought we would do the right thing and contact the WDC to get their opinion. I spoke to the office who said someone would get back to me, nothing. I phoned again and was passed on to other people who would get back to me, nothing. I even left a message with the so called head of that department, again nothing. After many phone calls and no reply's we gave up and carried on cutting the trees down. To this day I have never heard back from WDC. We done the right thing by checking first, which most people don't do, and WDC weren't the slightest bit interested. I guarantee, if we had gone ahead and cut those trees down in the first place and someone reported us, WDC would have been around there in a flash to fine us. Seems you have to do something wrong for WDC to act. Otherwise, if you do things by the book, you are just wasting their time.

What a great council - Excellent service and friendly staff. We first arrived here by boat 18 years ago and we have been amazed at how much the town has improved and developed since then. The council has been the main driving force behind that. The new Hundertwasser museum will make the town even better!