Fines waived by council as IT glitch bites hard

Council top reverse fine notices after email error

NOT ON: Noosa dog owners are to have dog registration fines waived. Picture: Geoff Potter

HEFTY registration fines for dog owners are being withdrawn by Noosa Council following a public outcry after it conceded an information technology glitch.

Council's local laws manager Phil Amson said council wanted to assure impacted owners "council is happy to withdraw an infringement notice for an unpaid dog registration where a resident no longer has their pet”. The council had to deal with upset owners hit with $252 fines for failing to notify the local authority when their dogs died or if they changed address.

Previously, Mr Amson had requested former owners sign statutory declarations, but now he said all that was required to have a fine waived was a phone call to council.

"It has also come to our attention that our emails informing people that their dog registration is overdue may have ended up in spam or junk mail filters,” he said.

"While we work on resolving it with our email provider, we will waive unpaid dog registration fines for affected residents.

"We apologise for this technical issue.”

Affected Noosa residents Graeme and Julie Dawson are glad that justice has prevailed after they were fined for failing to renew their dog registration.

They were the victims of the faulty email server, which sent the notice to the junk basket.

"Doing the environmentally correct thing by accepting council's request to go paperless was obviously a mistake,” they said in a joint letter to Noosa News.

"We have lived in Noosa for 39 years, owned a dog for 38 of the 39 years and this is the first time we have missed registering our dog.”

For failing to pay the registration fee of $38 fee, they were hit with a fine seven times larger.

The formerly "outraged” Dawsons are finally delighted that paid fines are to be credited back provided the dog owners contact the council.