Reluctance of some owners to have their homes tested for possible impacts from being built over and around a historic Napier landfill could be delaying others getting the answers they want.
But the Napier City Council is taking it on the chin, with city manager Neil Taylor putting his hand up yesterday for the way the programme around Onekawa Park is being run, requiring home-owners' consent for the testing and all relevant properties to be tested before a report is completed.
"I don't think we can make them do it," he said, "and in any case that is not the way this council would want to do it".
Environmental consultants Pattle Delamore tested about 40 council-owned leasehold properties in the first round of the programme in February, but about 15 others were not tested because of the lack of consent. Consent has been received in the case of 14 of about 20 properties in the second round.
Mr Taylor appreciated there would be anxiety and concern among some residents of the area, and said: "People don't like uncertainty in their lives, particularly when it relates to their property. The council wants to create certainty."