Napier City Council could face a challenge over a confidential settlement in a long-running legal rusty-building dispute related to the construction of the city's biggest apartment complex.
The council once budgeted $10 million to deal with leaky building issues in Ahuriri, but is not revealing the cost in the case of the West Quay apartments, subject of a trial which is set to start in the High Court at Wellington later this month and last up to 10 weeks.
While it has this week been revealed that the council's legal costs had come to more than $1.6 million, the council is honouring the settlement agreement.
A fortnight ago a council statement said: "The matter has been settled by negotiation between the parties in a manner which is satisfactory to all parties. The terms of settlement are confidential."
On Tuesday, responding to a Hawke's Bay Today request to Mayor Kirsten Wise seeking further information on whether it was staff or the council that agreed on the settlement and whether payments included council or insurance funds, a further statement said the "due to the confidentiality provisions in the settlement agreement, the council is not able to comment further".