Mayoral candidate Damon Harvey says Havelock North needs third road between it and Hastings

Hastings mayoral candidate Damon Harvey says he will lead a master plan for Havelock North. Photo / Supplied

Mayoral candidate Damon Harvey says Havelock North needs extra attention from Hastings District Council as it expands.

Harvey said he wants a third arterial road from Havelock North into Hastings because Havelock Rd is already congested.

Harvey said Havelock North residents needed "absolute confidence" that their village has the infrastructure to support new growth.

"A master plan has never been done before and I will make it a priority. As mayor, the master plan, developed with the community, will then become a template for across the district to change up how we advance Hastings for the future."

But incumbent mayor Sandra Hazlehurst says it won't be the first-ever master plan for Havelock North, because they have "already got those in our district plan".

In January, Hazlehurst said the region's leaders agreed to undertake a spatial plan for Hawke's Bay to see "where people will work, where they will live, and how we will connect through transport and connectivity and how we will protect our Heretaunga Plains, and land use for future".

"It has to be a district approach, you can't just look at one part in isolation."

Harvey said that since Havelock North Borough amalgamated with Hastings Council in 1989 the village's population has grown from 9000 to 14,000, and it could reach 20,000 within five years.

Over the next five years, up to 800 new houses are planned for Iona and Brookvale; construction of a large-scale retirement village is under way, new commercial buildings have recently been completed with more on the horizon and a new supermarket could be open within the next few years.

"Infrastructure network and services, including drinking water and wastewater, are constantly under pressure, schools are again at capacity, there's a shortage of carparking in the CBD. It's bumper to bumper traffic getting from one side of Havelock North to the other, or across to Hastings and back at peak times.

"All this will put further pressure on many aspects of living in Havelock North and we need to be planning now so that the infrastructure will cope."

He is also keen to see a sports and community hub developed at Anderson Park for rugby, cricket, tennis, squash and community groups.

Harvey said in the lead-up to the elections, he would announce a range of focus areas for his mayoral platform.