The Cost

If you are a ratepayer, the Trafalgar Centre will cost you the equivalent of about Three Jugs Of Beer a year for the first five years and from then on two a year. The average rate is $70 and, based on that, the Trafalgar Centre will cost an extra $1 a year. And that's less than three jugs of the popular amber liquid. This applies only if the original loan proposal of the Nelson City Council remains unchanged. The Local Authorities Loans Board approved a loan of $240,000 for the Council for the centre. $120,000 was to be on a long term basis and the other half on a short term, $30,000 to be repaid each year for four years. With the delays in the project, not all the short term may now be required and it may be converted to a long term loan. If that happens, and only $30,000 is needed for the short term loan, ratepayers could expect to pay an extra $1.40 a year, not the $1 mentioned previously. That would decrease after five years to about $1.30.

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Organiser of the petition opposing the centre, Mike Rodwell, carpenter at Nelson Hospital: How more democratic can we be than holding a referendum?