Thursday's council meeting to decide the fate of the Zespri site in Mount Maunganui has been cancelled, with the decision making process delayed while more information is collected for councillors.

The eight-week delay, which was confirmed by Mayor Stuart Crosby today, comes out of questions raised in the recent public consultation process.

The site in question on Maunganui Road. Photo: File.

The public submission process on the question of keeping the former Mount Maunganui civic reserve or selling it to Zespri was opposed. Of 194 submissions, 149 were against the move to sell off the block containing Mount Library and Mount Plunket Preschool.

Zespri, which occupies the former Mount Maunganui borough council offices, offered to buy the 1.56ha block at 384-410 Maunganui Road to expand its headquarters. It has a capital value of $11.6 million and a land value of $6.1 million.

Many of those opposing the move expressed concerns about losing the greenspace at the north end of the block, and that's what the council is looking into, confirms Stuart.

'The elected members have asked for some more information - hence the postponement of decision making regarding the site,” he says.

'The area that we are focussing on is the open space area, particularly from Mount North.

'We have done some open space reports before about the whole city, but we will update that.

'The focus is around the question mark of sufficient open space in the Mount North area, which is effectively from Golf Road to Mauao.”

The meeting has been deferred for eight weeks to allow time to review the future open space requirements for the area.

Feedback on the consultation process came back with recommendations to keep the status quo through to keeping various parts of the land and disposing of other parts, adds Stuart.

Strategic Planner Adele Hadfield says the council recognises that the provision of open space is a key issue amongst the community.

She says: 'Councillors have asked to defer the deliberations to allow staff more time to look at the future open space requirements and the increasing demands on other parks in the Mount north area.”