Marlborough's mayor wants Whakatane to stop claiming the North Island town as New Zealand's sunniest spot.

The Bay of Plenty town was stripped of the title of having the most annual sunshine hours, after scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research found its automatic recorder was overestimating sunshine hours by around 12 minutes a day. Whakatane's mayor does not believe the problem is as big as NIWA believes and plans to keep claiming the title.

But Marlborough mayor Alistair Sowman says Blenheim's sunshine hours are the highest and have been validated. He says Blenheim is the country's sunshine capital and has been for the last two years. Mr Sowman says it would be disappointing to lose the title on a technicality.

"It's very important. We've use it as a marketing tool for many, many years now and we've come to be recognised as a sunshine capital, especially here at the top of the south."

Mr Sowman says Whakatane needs to have correct records if it wants to claim the sunshine title.

"You have to have legitimate records and legitimate recording gear and I think it's proved that while Whakatane may claim to have the most hours, the gear wasn't accurate."

Mr Sowman says he would not mind if Whakatane called itself the sunshine capital of the North Island.