A leaked 2013 email shows Napier Mayor Bill Dalton appearing to support removing trucks from Marine Parade on a "permanent basis" despite his current stance that it is impossible to remove them completely.
The email, sent by Mr Dalton before October's elections, said there were roadworks which created an "ideal opportunity" to permanently remove freight trucks from the pedestrian-heavy Hawke's Bay road.
Mr Dalton wrote a possible campaign could be put together which would argue: "If you can do it on a temporary basis, you can do it on a permanent basis".
"If people got up off their hind legs and made a lot of noise about how good it was on the Parade without trucks, I am sure the message would get through," he wrote.
The opportunity he referred to was the recent roadworks along Marine Parade, including the construction of a new storm water pipe at the road's intersection with Tennyson St.