Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Hawke's Bay mayors do battle

By Simon Hendery
Hawkes Bay Today·
14 Sep, 2014 03:50 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article

The relationship between the twin cities' mayors has reached a new low, with Napier Mayor Bill Dalton accusing his Hastings counterpart of using "underhand methods and dishonest statements" to push a pro-amalgamation agenda.

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule has dismissed the claims, saying they are simply the latest in a string of personal attacks Mr Dalton has launched against him during the past six months.

The pair have been verbally sparring this week following the launch on Tuesday of a Hastings District Council marketing initiative to promote investment into the region.

Mr Dalton said the initiative - involving promotional videos and a slogan: "Great Things Grow Here" - was done in secret and would have been more effective if all the councils in the region had collaborated.

Mr Yule said while the slogan was kept confidential until this week's launch, the development of the videos was discussed during several months at meetings with the other councils, including Napier.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mr Dalton launched a stinging attack against Mr Yule in a post on his blog yesterday.

In the post he accused Mr Yule of keeping the "Great Things Grow Here" initiative secret before its launch as part of a strategy "to show that the region won't work together".

Mr Yule is a supporter of plans to amalgamate the region's local authorities while Mr Dalton has been a vocal opponent of a draft amalgamation proposal for the region put forward by the Local Government Commission.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"[Mr Yule] is determined to try and show that amalgamation is the only way forward. And he has resorted to underhand methods and dishonest statements to support his case," Mr Dalton said in his post.

Mr Yule said he did not intend to respond to the post, which was the latest in a number of posts criticising him over the past six months. "I'm just getting on and doing my job. We differ in our view of the world and some ideas.

"It's a battle of ideas, it's not a battle of people and I'm not about to get into personal politics," he said.

"I think it's an unfortunate side of the amalgamation debate and a style of politics. We have different views on it. I will promote my views and ultimately the people will decide whether they like the system we've got or something different."

In the post, Mr Dalton said all leaders in the region were committed to working collaboratively except Mr Yule.

"He is determined to create division wherever possible to further his own political aspirations."

Mr Yule denied Mr Dalton's claim that the Hastings council's marketing initiative was an attempt to promote his own pro-amalgamation agenda.

"I completely reject that. This was simply us trying to respond to a need in the market when we didn't have some material so we tried to make it as open and inclusive as we could be so others could use it," he said.

"Preparing this video has absolutely nothing to do with any push for amalgamation. It was simply to help businesses in the region, to get more jobs and to help us market ourselves in getting those businesses."

He said the video promotion concepts have been very well received with a lot of organisations asking to add their content to it. The videos had been formated so individual councils or organisations could add to the content in order to meet their own targeting requirements, he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We've been working on this for some time. We tried to make it available in a form anybody can use and I stand by that."

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay Today

Napier City Rovers’ National League hopes rest on four key matches

Hawkes Bay Today

Hawke's Bay F.A.W.C! festival paused amid funding challenges

Hawkes Bay Today

Jackson Ball a double Hawk and a Wisconsin Badger


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Recommended for you

Slips close two major routes into Rotorua
Rotorua Daily Post

Slips close two major routes into Rotorua

NZ Herald comments: The stories open for discussion today
New Zealand

NZ Herald comments: The stories open for discussion today

Here's how you might get $20k from your bank
Banking and finance

Here's how you might get $20k from your bank

Maxwell wants immunity, questions in advance to testify for Congress
World

Maxwell wants immunity, questions in advance to testify for Congress

'Ambition and ingenuity': Rotorua Business Awards finalists revealed
Rotorua Daily Post

'Ambition and ingenuity': Rotorua Business Awards finalists revealed

Air New Zealand appoints new CEO
Business

Air New Zealand appoints new CEO



Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Napier City Rovers’ National League hopes rest on four key matches
Hawkes Bay Today

Napier City Rovers’ National League hopes rest on four key matches

The Bill Robertson-coached team sits in fifth place on the points table.

29 Jul 07:59 PM
Hawke's Bay F.A.W.C! festival paused amid funding challenges
Hawkes Bay Today

Hawke's Bay F.A.W.C! festival paused amid funding challenges

29 Jul 04:39 AM
Jackson Ball a double Hawk and a Wisconsin Badger
Hawkes Bay Today

Jackson Ball a double Hawk and a Wisconsin Badger

28 Jul 11:08 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search