Watch NZH Local Focus: Yule gets 6th term

Kaysha Brownlie

Incumbent Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule has been re-elected for a sixth term.

He's been voted in ahead of rivals councillor Adrienne Pierce and lawyer Guy Wellwood.

Among the issues he thinks Hastings District is facing is the reopening of the Hawke's Bay Opera House as well as getting to the bottom of Havelock North's water crisis in August.

"The people do not like chlorine in the water so obviously that's a priority we've got to work as quickly as possible to see if we can get that removed.

"The upgrade of the Hastings CBD, and I mean in a fundamental way, it is too big, it's not fit for purpose with online shopping and large format stores."

Mr Yule said he was unsure how the Havelock North water crisis had affected the outcome of the election.

"It could've gone very badly for me, and I was quite worried about that during this campaign, probably the most difficult campaign I've had since I've been running mayoral campaigns."

Many people wanted change, he said, but he was grateful to those who had showed their support for him by voting in his favour.

Also president of Local Government New Zealand, Mr Yule will be sitting down to a table of fresh and familiar faces.

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