The Whakatane council voted to remove fluoride from its water supply a couple of weeks ago, and reversed the decision this week.

Back in 2013 the council held a referendum. The result was 60% for fluoridation.

Following this, the council recently listened to evidence from pro and anti fluoride campaigners before making a decision to cease fluoridation. However, Making Sense of Fluoride, the pro-fluoride equivalent of Fluoride-Free NZ, were not invited to talk to the council and were not aware of the impending decision.

A Notice of Motion (from Deputy mayor Judy Turner) proposing the revocation of a previous council resolution to stop adding fluoride to the water supplies was debated on Thursday, and a new decision was made to continue fluoridating, and to try to start fluoridating those areas that voted in the referendum that they wanted fluoridation.

Anti-fluoride campaigner John Burness believes that a councillor who changed his vote, Mr Van Beek, was bullied by health authorities into changing his mind.

• http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/296276/whakatane-flip-flops-on-fluoride (opens new window)
• http://fluoridefree.org.nz/campaigns/whakatane/ (opens new window)
• http://msof.nz/2016/02/russell-orrs-open-letter-to-the-whakatane-council/ (opens new window)