"All this is about really is trying to intimidate a councillor who has been a strong advocate for getting information on the table. If Fenton wants to try to intimidate me he's picked the wrong target."
He said he had repeatedly made it clear that he had not made his mind up on whether the council should invest in the project.
"I'm probably the fiercest questioner on what's going on here and whether the case has yet been made [for the investment], and I'll continue to play that role," he said.
Mr Wilson yesterday described Mr Belford's response as "melodramatic".
"I'm not sure why Tom has dug his toes in so deep over it. To me it's pretty clear."
He said Mr Belford's presentation to the board of inquiry left doubt in the minds of the public as to whether he could make an unbiased decision on the dam proposal.
Mr Wilson said he was yet to decide the next step he would take on the issue.
The mayor of Hastings, Lawrence Yule, who is also the president of pan-council advocacy group Local Government New Zealand, said in a case where there was a potential perception of "pre-determination" in voting on an issue, it was up to the individual councillor to decide how they handled the situation.
A perception of pre-determination placed the council at risk, if a third party challenged a decision they had voted, Mr Yule said.
"The individual councillor has to weigh up whether he or she is compromising the decision-making ability of the council," he said.
"The risk is you upset and cause the ratepayers and the authority costs by undermining the decision-making process.
"If you knowingly do that, and you've been warned against it, there is some potential for those costs to be sheeted home to the individual councillor.
"But that's a very hard thing to prove. I don't know if it's ever been done."
Mr Belford received support for his stance from a fellow councillor at the weekend.
In an email sent to councillors and the media, Rex Graham said he found Mr Wilson's challenge to Mr Belford's right to vote on the Ruataniwha proposal "extremely disturbing".
"We live in a small community that has very diverse views on the [Ruataniwha] project and we are all conflicted in some way or another, that's the village environment that we live in," Mr Graham said.
"I very strongly suggest that you forget about Tom Belford's perceived conflicts and focus on getting all your councillors the information that they require to be able to make an informed decision on the [project]."
