[comment caption=Have you ever regretted sending an email?]Carisbrook Stadium Trust officials have been left red-faced after an exchange of rude emails with Dunedin stadium opponent Bev Butler was made public.
In the emails, Ms Butler, president of the Stop the Stadium group, repeatedly questioned trust commercial manager Guy Hedderwick over private funding arrangements for the planned $188 million Awatea St stadium.
After several exchanges, a frustrated Mr Hedderwick attempted to forward one of Ms Butler's emails to trust chief executive Ewan Soper, along with the comment: "Hi Ewan - At what point do I tell her to piss off? Regards, Guy."
Unfortunately, Mr Hedderwick hit the "reply" button rather than "forward", meaning the message was relayed back to Ms Butler by mistake.
An apology from Mr Hedderwick followed shortly after, reading: "Hi Bev - I sent you an email in error. I apologise and ask that you ignore it and/or delete it."
The exchange - which occurred almost two weeks ago - also revealed that the Carisbrook trust has so far received just $30 in private funding donations. The trust's target for private sector funding is $55.5 million. Ms Butler sent copies of the emails to the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
Mr Hedderwick could not be contacted yesterday, but Mr Soper conceded the language used was "disappointing".
"It's not the sort of standard of behaviour and response that we set ourselves," he said. "But we have learned from that and that's all you can do, I suppose."
Ms Butler told the ODT the exchange highlighted the trust's "arrogance and attitude towards genuine concerns" members of the public held about the stadium.
"Obviously Guy [Hedderwick] was not really wanting to answer the questions and was wanting to fob me off. The accidental email said it all, really."
She was also concerned to learn the trust had almost no paid-up donations from the private sector, and was instead relying on registrations of interest for corporate products - such as memberships, corporate suites and sponsorship deals.
Her own anti-stadium organisation had received more support, including individual donations of more than $1000, she claimed.
Mr Soper said the $30 donation had been on the trust's books since 2007, but he did not know the donor's identity.
He was not sure if the amount came from one donation, or from several smaller amounts. His organisation had attempted to satisfy Ms Butler's queries "to the point of frustration" and had offered to meet her to discuss her concerns, but Ms Butler has declined the invitation.
Ms Butler said she had sent another email yesterday to Mr Hedderwick, containing eight new questions and two older questions asked for a second time.
