The Buller District councillors voted on Thursday to show they had “no confidence” in Mayor Garry Howard after it was earlier revealed he signed an apparent agreement to give a proposed waste-to-energy plant in Westport the go-ahead without telling the public or councillors. Cr Dave Hawes said the deal would have bankrupted the council if approved. It included a price for water that would have meant the waste-to-energy company would have been paying only 8 per cent of what Westport residents paid for water.
