Dunedin city councillor Kate Wilson is appalled at the process by which a decision to spend an extra $107,000 on John Wilson Ocean Dr was made.
The decision to upgrade the road so it can be reopened to vehicles was made at Monday's full council meeting in Dunedin.
She was particularly concerned the money would come from another project, probably a community project, that would see others lose out.
She said she was also surprised the chairman and one of the deputy chairmen of the council's finance, strategy and development committee, who she would have expected to be more prudent, voted to spend the money without that information.
Finance, strategy and development committee chairman Syd Brown yesterday said Cr Wilson's comments sounded to him like sour grapes.
"When a democratic decision is made, it is expected that if you are on the losing side it is immature and sour grapes to criticise the process because you were not successful."
In his 15 years on council, decisions that required new spending had been taken numerous times, and councillors always put their confidence in the chief executive and financial officer to advise them of whether they could find the money or it would have to be a budget overrun.
He noted, however, that every year since he had been on council there had been a surplus, largely from projects that could not go ahead for some reason, so the money was likely to be there.
Deputy chairman John Bezett was out of the country.
At Monday's meeting, the sentiment to "bite the bullet" and decide the future of the road after trying to do so since 2008 was the consensus of those councillors who voted in favour of the decision. Those who voted against it were largely concerned about the cost and their earlier decision to retain the road as predominantly pedestrian.
