Hawke's Bay Regional Council has backed down from prosecuting the Hastings District Council over water breaches relating to the gastro crisis.
A joint statement released said the two charges had been withdrawn for breaching consent conditions and instead will consider issuing an infringement notice.
Hastings District Council will not oppose the decision made by the regional council to issue any infringement notices.
This comes after a day where regional council staff came under scrutiny for laying charges in the first place.
In November, charges were laid against Hastings District Council for alleged offences uncovered in the course of a Hawke's Bay Regional Council investigation into the contamination of Havelock North drinking water.
The regional council and Hastings agree that the infringement notice relates to a breaching of consent by taking and using water from the Brookvale road bores, not the water contamination.
"Neither the withdrawal of the prosecution proceedings nor the non-contesting of the infringement notices either indicate or rule out any cause of the water contamination," the statement reads.
The cause of the water contamination is for the government inquiry to determine.
Both councils stated they look forward to assisting the Government Inquiry into the water contamination event, agreeing that the most important factor in the public interest is to determine the cause and ensure there is no repeat of what happened.
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