Damage to Wanganui’s ‘southern entranceway’ might just be caused by mindless vandalism, but Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws is taking it personally.
 
The Southern Entranceway is an initiative of Mayor Laws and designed to provide a more inviting and attractive entrance to the city. It has been a joint project between the Wanganui District Council and Transit New Zealand.
 
It was extensively vandalised again during the weekend, with the base for a ‘welcome’ sculpture being attacked.  This follows significant thefts of plantings and trees that are designed to complement the entranceway project.
 
“This damage (to the entranceway) is costing ratepayers tens of thousands of dollars,” the Mayor said.

“It seems odd that it is experiencing repeated vandalism. The latest required heavy equipment to achieve. Unfortunately security cameras were not properly aligned to identify these morons. That has since been remedied.”
 
Mayor Laws suspects that “a political agenda is at work. It will not achieve its purpose – we are going to beautify our entrance to Wanganui and that’s the end of it”.
 
The project includes a welcome structure – an innovative and significant sculpture – that has excited council and was endorsed by Putiki locals and local iwi.  Its unveiling will form the feature of the opening ceremony to be conducted next month.
 
Back in 2007 when the southern entranceway initiative was launched, the Mayor said: “We are daily disadvantaged by our southern motorway. Tens of thousands of cars travel this route every month and the Cobham Bridge entrance is their only impression of our city. We can, and must, do better.”