The mushroom effect promises one of Havelock North's biggest public meetings in years next week, as the community grapples with odorous multiple but joined disputes over fungal delicacy processing, urban expansion and a new school.
The meeting has been called by the Hastings District Council, which bills it as an "information session", and will be held on Tuesday, starting at 5.30pm, in the Havelock North Function Centre.
"We needed a venue that can take up to 250 people," mayor Lawrence Yule said last night from India as he prepared to fly home to New Zealand in time for the meeting.
He will attend along with representatives of the Hawke's Bay Regional Council and Te Mata Mushrooms, the business recently prosecuted by the regional council over odorous emissions from its Brookvale Rd plant.
A notice of the meeting says it's about future residential expansion of the Havelock North Arataki and Brookvale Rd area and the "ongoing operations" of Te Mata Mushrooms, a company in the area for 48 years and employing about 120 people.