Sorell Council wants about $1,800 from an animal sanctuary to inspect 20 metres of pipe, down from an original $2,600, despite two independent reports its operator says found it acceptable.
Ian Womack, a British Army veteran, runs Eventide Sanctuary, a non-native animal rescue sanctuary on 100 acres at Carlton River.
He said a stray dog he adopted in Far North Queensland, Wally, inspired him to stay in Australia and later set up the sanctuary, which now houses more than 200 animals.
He said he was asked to obtain and pay for two independent reports, from a wastewater specialist and a licensed plumber, but the council still wanted to carry out its own inspection.
“What was the point in the first two reports if they then wanna come and do it themselves anyway?” he told Pulse.
He said the inspection would “literally take them about 10 minutes” and described the fee in a social media post as “just a licence to print money”.
He said the council told him it was a set fee whether it was a whole new housing development or “just putting one sink in a shed”.
“That just persecutes the little guy,” he said.
In an email to the council, Womack said he was not told the council had a fee waiver scheme until he had been dealing with it for about two years.
He said he applied for a fee waiver on September 9.
On October 14, Mayor Janet Gatehouse told him in an email the request was “sitting with the CEO who recently returned from long service leave”.
In the same email, Gatehouse said a Facebook post Womack had published the night before, “probably out of a sense of frustration, will not force any hand”.
“It is not my place to influence Council staff or standard operational processes,” she wrote.
Womack replied that his post “was not to force anyone’s hand” and it was “disappointing you would accuse me of this”.
Womack said the waiver was rejected more than seven weeks after he applied, one business day after the council election results were announced.
He described the timing as “unusual” and asked the council which objectives of its fee waiver policy he had failed to meet.
Womack said the sanctuary ran on a very small budget, funded through guided tours, school education visits, therapy animal tours and children’s birthday parties.
He said the plumbing was in a small shed he had converted to live in.
“Obviously you don’t have a lot of money left over for a nice house when you’re pouring all of your money into animals every day,” he said.
He said that as the sanctuary grew, he received more letters of demand from the council.
“They’ve always come with issues and persecution really,” he said.
“Not once has any of them came to kinda work together or support what I’m doing.”
He has asked the council to list the compliance issues it has raised with the sanctuary and has requested a meeting.
Sorell Council declined to comment when contacted by Pulse.
