Newspaper Article 2017 – Council set to undo memorial mistakes

Council set to undo memorial mistakes

Before a 20-strong crowd, Napier City Council yesterday agreed to recommendations that would restore the war memorial with community input.

By Victoria White
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Applause rang out at a Napier City Council meeting yesterday, after it resolved to “get this right” on the Napier War Memorial.

This has been embroiled in a months-long emotional saga, after the council agreed to remove commemorative items from the Napier Conference Centre during its multi-million dollar redevelopment, to be installed in a more appropriate location – moves not widely known by the public.

There has since been widespread upset, particularly as the building was built through public funding to be a memorial.

Speaking to his 840-signature petition at the meeting, resident Selwyn Hawthorne appealed to Napier Mayor Bill Dalton to make decisions “that will allow you to have a clear conscience when you say ‘lest we forget’”.

If the council voted to restore the memorial items, and “consult openly and meaningfully with the community regarding the return of the correct name of the building, you will be remembered, hopefully for the right reasons.”

His appeal appears answered – yesterday council unanimously agreed to reinstall the items at the Floral Clock site, and to consult with the community on the process – including memorial design concepts, the roll of honour plaques and the building’s name.

This consultation was included in five new recommendations put forward by councillor Kirsten Wise.

“The message I have received loud and clear is that [the community] are unhappy with the decisions that have been made,” she said. “It is our responsibility as elected representatives to consult and listen to what our community is telling us, and I don’t believe we should be rushing into any decisions. We need to get this right, and we need to get the whole of our community and certainly stakeholders such as Guy Natusch, the original architect of this building, involved.”

This was echoed by deputy mayor Faye White, who said “sometimes we need to undo our mistakes”.

“Today is about putting right what has gone wrong. We didn’t start off to make it wrong but unfortunately it did go wrong.”

Cheers rang out from the 20-person audience when council agreed to include the new recommendations.

It was known the council would restore the memorial items but some remained upset about “War Memorial” being removed from the Napier Conference Centre title, as they saw the building and memorial as linked.

Ms Wise’s recommendation would see the building’s name consulted on. The original recommendation was to rename the centre’s ballroom as the “War Memorial Hall”. It was also suggested this name could be restored to the outside of the centre directly above the new memorial site, although Napier Conference Centre would be used for branding.

The new recommendations also meant the existing roll of honour plaques would remain in storage until the community were consulted on how they could be incorporated into the new memorial.

Additional funding would be allocated to the project once design concepts and project costs were completed. About $50,000 had been allocated for the relocation of the war memorial.

The floral clock would be relocated to the sunken gardens. The Hurst family had been consulted and had agreed with that.

Photo caption – LISTENING: President of the Hastings branch of the Royal NZ Air Force Association Les Hewett (left) and Selwyn Hawthorne, who petitioned the council for a permanent home for the Eternal Flame, are pleased with the outcome.
PHOTO/WARREN BUCKLAND