The Mercury Bay Boating Club has been granted a lease for land on Whitianga’s Dundas Street, but now a special general meeting will be held to determine what happens next.

Club Commodore Phil Hart told us that while securing the site was positive, the lease conditions came with hefty costs.

Rent, which was previously to Thames Coromandel District Council, will jump from $350 a year at the club’s Buffalo Beach site to over $10,000, the new site being administered by the Department of Conservation.

Further cost increases over the next three years are expected to push up annual club expenses to around $20,000 annually.

Phil said the costs would be a challenge hence the reason for club members being asked to have their say.