Wellington Mayor Andy Foster spent $30,000 hanging on to his wafer-thin win of the Wellington Mayoralty.

Foster took the Mayoral chains from Lester in a nail-biting election in October .

The initial votes saw Foster 715 votes ahead but this was whittled down to just 62.

Lester's bid for a recount was denied by a District Court judge. But court documents leaked to Stuff show Foster spent $30,000 fighting the recount.

READ MORE:

* Ousted Wellington mayor Justin Lester's vote recount hopes take a hit

* Uncertainty about Wellington's mayoralty continues as judge weighs up recount

* Newly-elected deputy mayor Sarah Free says she won't fight any decision to replace her

Lester would not comment on the case other than to say his legal bills for the recount bid came in at $3750. Foster did not return calls for comment.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF Wellington Mayor Andy Foster spent $30,000 stopping Justin Lester having a recount of Mayoral votes.

A judgement from Wellington District Court Judge Kevin Kelly shows that Foster had sought a contribution to his legal costs from Lester.

In his request for costs, Foster argued that he was "required to expend substantial and urgent effort to ensure that the Court was properly apprised of the existence and determinative effect against a recount".

But Foster's ultimately the Judge decided that, because the recount never actually happened, there was no jurisdiction to award costs.

MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Justin Lester officially asked for a recount, saying invalid votes should have been counted, with lawyer Graeme Edgeler.

Stuff filed an official information request with Wellington City Council on November 11 to find out how much the recount cost Wellington rate payers, as well as how much council time was spent on it. The council is yet to respond.

The court-cost details come just a day after Wellington Mayoral and council candidates' donations and expenses were released.

Foster received $59,938 from seven donors – most notably $30,000 from companies of filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson.

He also received $10,000 from Maadi Trust, $10,000 from concert promoter Phil Sprey, $4938 from Building Solutions, and skincare company Antipodes donated $5000 to his campaign. He spent $58,066 on his campaign.

By comparison, Lester had just one donation in excess of $1500 and that was $5000 from the union E tū.

He spent $16,284.38 on his campaign – less than a third of Foster's spend.