Sports clubs aren't flush in funds any more and a toilet tax is making matters much worse.

New drink-driving laws have severely diminished bar takings, community funding is at an all-time low and on top of that the New Plymouth council is asking sports clubs to flush $5000 a year down the drain in the form of a toilet tax.

Neil Barnes, from New Plymouth Old Boys club, told councillors this week that the finances of sports clubs were in dire straits.

Speaking on behalf of at least three clubs in Taranaki, Barnes said sports clubs were hurting and recently many had been in the red year on year.

New Plymouth Old Boys (NPOB) were one of many clubs struggling and part of their problem was paying $4800 a year in a user-pays tax on toilet bowls.

That money was sometimes the difference between the club breaking even in a financial year or being in the red.

Barnes said the club only discovered about three years ago that the yearly bill it was paying the council included $4800 of toilet charges for a sewer charge known as a pan tax.

"I didn't think that was fair," he said. "People already pay pan tax at home. It doesn't matter if you are going at home or at the club, you've already paid for it."

He said houses were charged one "bowl charge" per house, despite how many toilets were involved, whereas sports clubs had to pay a charge for each and every toilet they had.

On top of forking out nearly $5000 on a toilet tax, bar sales at NPOB had dropped from about $100,000 in 2012 to as low as $40,000.

Barnes said new drink-driving laws and people caring more about responsible drinking had caused this dip in income.

He said both of those factors were good for the community, but hard for clubs.

NPOB had put in a new kitchen to try to increase the cashflow and had done many fundraising events as well.

But coupled with the loss of about $15,000 a year in community funding for operational costs, clubs were struggling.

"We have nothing in our savings account. We are on the bones of our arse.

"Pan tax is the second or third biggest expense for the club and it's not even a fair expense."

He called for councillors to wipe the toilet tax, or at least limit it to a standard one bowl per venue charge.

For the burden of pan tax to be lifted from sports clubs it would cost about $2 a per year, per ratepayer, he said.

"I feel like a peasant having to ask people to let us off this. It is the policy that needs changing."

Richard Jordan said the system of charging sports clubs more for their toilet tax should go down the drain.

"It is not fair or equitable to hit the clubs. They provide a service to our community and we are not recognising that.

"It's not like they are producing any more product, shall we say."

However, not everyone agreed the tax should be slashed and councillor Murray Chong was outright against the idea.

"Unfortunately someone has to pay for the use of it and we are in savings mode, well, some of us are," he said.

"In this situation I think it is a user-pays issue."

Councillors voted in favour of asking the public what they think about cutting all or part of the toilet tax for sports clubs. It will be included in the long-term plan consultation document, which goes out on March 25.