Sandcastle trip to US 'money well spent'

Christchurch city councillor Gail Sheriff. Photo / Simon Baker

A besieged local body politician insists a ratepayer-funded trip to see a sandcastle competition in the United States was worth every cent.

However the vitriol from some ratepayers, including hate-filled calls to her family, has convinced Christchurch city councillor Gail Sheriff not to stand again at the coming elections.

The councillor of 15 years is also calling for a rethink of the public's access to politicians after one caller to her home wished her flight back to New Zealand would crash.

"It just saddens me that people can be so nasty. There's no need for it."

Ms Sheriff returned on Wednesday from Imperial Beach, 24km south of San Diego, where she got first-hand insight into the "US Open Sandcastle Competition". She was seeking inspiration for a similar event, Sandcastles Down Under, to be held in Christchurch next March.

The $3958 trip was paid for from a ratepayer-funded discretionary fund.

Ms Sheriff said the trip was money well spent for the international media attention alone.

She was interviewed by local and national media in the United States about her visit, and the Discovery Channel planned to follow American sand sculptors to Christchurch in March.

"I believe I have done the right thing. I believe that this is absolutely going to benefit my community."

She felt she could not stand again for a councillor's seat after the ugly backlash from some ratepayers.

"I don't want this negative, nasty stuff - people ringing up my husband and telling [him] she hopes my plane goes down, and people ringing up on the phone and [being] abusive and hanging up. Those people are so narrow-minded and ignorant."

Ms Sheriff suggested that the practice of city councillors making their home phone numbers public would have to stop.

"When it really starts to impact upon your family, you have to draw the line somewhere."

Despite her decision to bow out of local body politics, she was determined to make the March event a success.

"So [the ratepayers] will still get their money's worth."

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker, who approved her trip, said the abuse directed at her was "appalling" and might have been politically motivated.

Christchurch mayoral candidate Jim Anderton said that if he - while serving in Helen Clark's Cabinet - had gone to the Prime Minister about attending a sandcastle competition, her response would have been simple.

"She would say, 'Jim, don't you like your job?"'

While he empathised with Ms Sheriff over the abuse she had received, Mr Anderton said such attacks were part of the life of a politician.