Suzanne Williams

This is what Whakatāne has been dubbed locally, with some justification.

The Kiwi Trust operating from here does a marvellous job of work towards helping our national bird to regain a viable unassisted population, through hard work on publicity, trapping, night walks, dog aversion training etc and all power to them and supporters.

Now we have a non-local artist offering his work (supposedly a kiwi) for an undisclosed price, as a large sculpture at the town entrance.

This seems like a good idea on the surface – but how much consultation has there been with the populace on the matter?

What is the procedure in a case like this?

To me, not an “arty” type, the representation as shown is really ugly, but others will have a different opinion.

I guess if we are not paying for it we get no say in the matter.

As the district and regional councils are partners in the Whakatāne Kiwi Trust, I would have thought that something as important to the town as this should have been of vital interest to them.

Would it not have been a better idea to have asked for ideas from local artists, with a poll following with a vote and monetary contributions invited from locals as well as from at least the Whakatāne District Council and/or the community board?

I did appreciate the excellent letter on the subject from Duncan Smith (Beacon, October 9). His comments were spot on.

Also, I do echo Jan Ruijne’s comment about the inappropriateness of the inartistic site for such a sculpture – but I do think that it needs to be near the town entrance.

Is there somewhere else available with a nice bush background near there? Something as important to the town’s image as this needs due deliberation.