Wanganui's mayor and chief executive stepped up in defence of district council officers when debate around the city's wastewater treatment plant got cantankerous at a council committee meeting.
A clash erupted at yesterday's operations and reporting committee meeting when Councillor Rob Vinsen again questioned the need and impact of an odour fence surrounding the ponds near the airport.
The council has been forced into a $24 million upgrade of the plant which has been plagued with problems since it was commissioned in 2007. Problems reached a head when nauseating odours started coming from the ponds in December 2012.
But when Mr Vinsen persisted with his line of questioning directed at council infrastructure manager Mark Hughes, Mayor Annette Main and chief executive Kevin Ross got involved.
Mr Vinsen asked Mr Hughes what benefits had been gained from council spending $670,000 on spraying air freshener from the fence and if it was the wrong action to have been taken.
Mr Hughes said in his view it had been "a waste of money" but said council had taken that advice from experts and it had been endorsed by Horizons Regional Council.
It was also a course of action the Environment Court ultimately made a condition of repairs council has been carrying out on the ponds.
Mr Ross reminded the committee that the plan was not an officer decision.
"You, as a council, adopted this course of action and council has continued to agree to it," he said.
Ms Main said it was a direct instruction from the council to staff to carry out this policy "and it's unfair of any councillor to ask any staff member to justify it".
When Councillor Charlie Anderson chimed in with a comment that the odour fence was "bollocks" the mayor cut him short, saying that type of language was "absolutely disrespectful" of the staff.
Mr Anderson apologised.
"We're so close to ending the smell issues our community has had to endure over the last year," Ms Main said.
"The measures we've taken to reduce the odours have been necessary and I would not be prepared to stop these measures while we complete the sludge extraction process."
Councillor Helen Craig said the decision was made long before the current council was elected and she could not understand why it was being brought up again.
Councillor Philippa Baker-Hogan tried to introduce a motion asking council to have the Environment Court reassess its current order for the odour control to continue but it was rejected by committee chair Councillor Ray Stevens.
Speaking later, Mr Stevens said by the time that process had been gone through the sludge would have been removed from the ponds so the action would have been redundant.
In an update to the meeting Mr Hughes said there was estimated 2500 tonnes of dried sludge to be removed from the ponds and so far 1300 tonnes had been taken out. In a bid to speed up the process the contractor was running the desludging equipment 24 hours a day, six days a week.
He said at that rate the sludge - the cause of the stench from the ponds - would be removed by the end of this month.
The upgraded treatment plant is due for commissioning in early 2015.