Waitakere City Council v Lovelock - [1997] 2 NZLR 385

Local government — Rating powers — Council rating on land values — Council proposing change to capital value — Council advised by officials and rating committee to consider adopting stepped differential rating for residential properties — Relevant considerations to be taken into account — Whether fiduciary duty required council to fix rates on basis of stepped differential — Limits to fiduciary duty — Whether council's decision to retain status quo unreasonable and therefore invalid — Whether scope for judicial intervention in decision on rating by democratically elected council — Local Government Act 1974, ss 121, 122 — Rating Powers Act 1988, ss 12, 95, 109 and 110.

Administrative law — Judicial review — Whether fiduciary duty to ratepayers amenable to judicial review — Whether local authority's rating decision unreasonable and therefore invalid — Whether stringent test of unreasonableness applicable — Whether local authority exercising proper political discretion — Whether scope for judicial intervention in political decision of on-rating by democratically elected council.