Mayor's complaint dismissed

NOT IMPRESSED: Napier Mayor Bill Dalton. PHOTO/FILE

The Local Government Commission and pro-amalgamation group A Better Hawke's Bay have rejected a claim by Napier Mayor Bill Dalton that amalgamation supporters are receiving important information from the commission ahead of opponents, such as his council.

Mr Dalton said details of yesterday's commission report findings were not officially emailed to Napier City Council chief executive Wayne Jack until 12.32pm yesterday, almost two hours after they were sent to media and others, including ABHB.

The information arrived at Hawke's Bay Today at 10.39am.

"Other parties were in a position to make press releases almost immediately after that," Mr Dalton said. "We didn't get the document until 12.32pm. Frankly, that's appalling."

But a spokeswoman for the commission, Kathryn Street, said calls were made to all Hawke's Bay council chief executives ahead of the media being sent details.

In the case of Mr Jack, he was in a meeting and was unable to take the call - but a request was made to his executive assistant for him to call back.

ABHB chair Rebecca Turner phoned Hawke's Bay Today at 10.52am to say the group would be releasing a statement in response to the information. ABHB's statement arrived at 12.04pm.

Ms Turner later said she had no prior knowledge that the commission would release information yesterday and first became aware of it when she received an email at the same time as Hawke's Bay Today.

"We didn't get it any earlier. You can't do that."