Important decorations gone

RECEPTION CASCADE: The main hall at the Gladstone Sports Complex as it looked ahead of a wedding on Saturday, after volunteers pitched in and reconfigured the ceiling decoration in the wake of the discovery that $5000 worth of decorative silks were missing. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Security will be tightened at the community-owned Gladstone Sports Complex after the disappearance last week of thousands of dollars worth of decorative 'silks' essential to a wedding at the site on Saturday.

Tracey O'Callaghan, Gladstone Complex committee president, said "metres and metres" of the white decorative material, which comprised ceiling panels that helped transform the main hall of the complex into a billowing indoor marquee, had been found missing a week ago when workers were preparing for the first wedding of the season.

The decorations were worth about $5000, she said, and were essential to hosting weddings and fundraising events at the site.

"We have no idea who has taken the silks or why. The community use the complex for a variety of sports and recreation activities, so lots of people have access and the silks are really not useful to anyone else - the fabric is nylon and only fits our hall," she said.

"Access to the complex had been based on trust but unfortunately we'll have to increase security now, which is really sad." Mrs O' Callaghan said the complex costs up to $30,000 a year to run and each hireage of the hall for a wedding can net the community facility up to $2000.

Mrs O'Callaghan said 15 members of the Gladstone community rallied around on Wednesday and fitted out the ceiling with about $500 worth of cascading vilene, in time for the wedding on Saturday of Tapaga Isaac and Lydia Holmes, the daughter of Valmai and David Holmes.

Mr Holmes, who is a Masterton district councillor, was one of the founding fundraisers and promoters of the complex.

"For the wedding, we used our initiative and came up with a solution using fabric strips - 500 metres of it - and lots of people came to help install it, so at least the wedding could go ahead."

Mrs O'Callaghan had hoped the bag containing the missing silks had been misplaced and she sought its return through Facebook and by word of mouth. She had since come to believe the bag was more likely to have been stolen and the disappearance was reported to police. "We would very much like to have our silks back. If anyone finds a large bag of white nylon fabric, please let us know."