Mayor stands alone as the only one opposing new War Memorial option

The forecourt building option for the Napier War Memorial Centre. Photo / Napier City Council

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton is backing a decision that left him as the only opposition to a War Memorial design proposal at a council committee meeting on Tuesday.

On an issue to be double-debated at a full council meeting in March, his councillors otherwise voted to go back to designers with a proposal combining three designs.

That had been proposed after public consultation last year in the recovery stages of fallout over the removal of the memorial and recognition from the War Memorial complex in its rebranding as a conference centre.

The garden option, one of three designs proposed by council staff, to best reflect public feedback. Photo / Napier City Council

Proposals are now to reinstate all aspects of the memorial around the complex on Marine Parade.

Dalton said he was surprised all other councillors had supported the stance of councillors Kirsten Wise and Annette Brosnan in putting forward an amended proposal for a new design direction for staff, instead of progressing the designs in front of them.

Wise had said they had sought feedback before putting the option, but Dalton said today that while he absolutely supports proposals to have a memorial at the centre, he could not support the latest move.

The indoor option, an image screenshot taken from a video supplied to council. Photo / NCC

That was because it had no design nor costings before the council, when drawings before the council did have the detail for three proposals developed after the expense of consultation and getting the visuals "so we know what they will look like".

"It was a leap of blind faith to support that (the latest option)," he said. "If there was a costing a design before us I would have considered it."