Regional council staff are reviewing their public information policy after they failed to inform the public and media of an oil spill in Tauranga Harbour last week.

The news of the oil spill from the Singaporean flagged cargo ship Liloa during a refuelling mishap at the Port of Tauranga on July 3 only became public this week.

Regional council is reviewing its policy after an oil spill in Tauranga Harbour went unreported to the public.

When council staff were asked why ratepayers were not told about the successful spill clean-up, regional council communications manager Julia Craven says generally speaking the council will make an announcement when the public or property are affected.

Some of the heavy fuel oil reached the beach in Pilot Bay and was gathered, bagged and taken away.

It is understood a press release on the incident was drafted by communications staff but was not sent as council did not receive any inquiries about the incident.

'We decided we would release any information to any concerned members of the public or media. To our astonishment we didn't get any requests about it, and we thought, ‘great clean up'.

'It was my decision that we not publicise it to the public, that we should just answer queries,” says Julia.

'It was not the right decision and we are going to review how we do it.”

She says the regional council informed its key stakeholders, but the general public – the beneficial owners of the Port of Tauranga shareholding, and the council's ratepayers – were not informed.

A press release from the regional council yesterday stated the regional council's key contacts include iwi and staff at Tauranga City and Western Bay District Councils, who it says were informed on Thursday morning.

But Te Awanui Black, chairman of Te Moana a Toi, the Maori forum for iwi from the Coromandel to Cape Runaway, says he wasn't informed.

When asked about that, Julia says council will take it up with iwi and will also be reviewing how it notifies the public of incidents.

'The guys got it cleaned up. There wasn't oil left on the beach. We are going to review that for sure, absolutely we are going to review that.”

Regional council chairman John Cronin says he will raise the matter with council's chief executive Mary-Anne Macleod.

The council's motto is ‘Working with the community' and it should be on the regional council's website, says John.

'If it's not on the website I'm a bit surprised. That's the mantra we work to, is working with the community,” says John.

'Our job is to work with the community. It's the nature of what we do. We are a council and we work for the community for the betterment of things for the community, and we will always continue to do so. I thought it was a given.”

BOPRC pollution prevention manager Nick Zaman says it was a 'text-book” clean up and booms were not deployed as it was too dangerous to undertake in the dark.

'When it's dark and you can't see the extent of the slick, you don't want to be out there. If you can't see what you are doing it's dangerous.

'It was a text book clean up. My job is to get my teams out there and keep their health and safety, that's my job.”