Editorial: Time to close the door on pare row

Hopefully the furore over Wanganui District Council's controversial pare will soon be finally put to rest.

After a drawn-out process that's spanned several years, the council this week approved the pare (lintel) for installation.

However, it couldn't possibly be that easy - and of course, it isn't.

Council has agreed to set the pare up outside the council chamber doors. But there's now concern that the contemporary design of the tukutuku panels intended to be installed inside the council chamber following from the pare do not fit well with the more traditional surrounds of the chamber.

It appears today's council has been left to pick up the pieces of a decision made several years earlier.

In 2006, the council commissioned Whanganui iwi Te Runanga o Tupoho to provide a pare to be placed around the council chamber's doors.

Tupohu decided the pare should be a contemporary design, which was reportedly agreed to by the council, led by then-mayor and current councillor Michael Laws.

But when the pare was finished, Mr Laws rejected it, labelling it "puerile and pathetic", and claiming it deliberately included an H, a reference to the debate over whether the letter should be included in the spelling of Wanganui.

Regardless of whether or not the pare does indeed deliberately include an H (a shape which the design was probably naturally inclined towards, given that it's supposed to be installed over a doorway), it's a head-scratcher as to why, five years on, this is still being discussed.

The pare has sat in a basement since 2007 and has cost the council $22,500.

It's hard to argue with those concerned that the pare should fit with the existing design of the council chambers, arguably one of the best of their kind in this country.

So why then, was a contemporary pare design agreed to?

The council's decision this week to revisit the issue of the tukutuku panels is probably the right one.

It's just a shame that it's come to this - coupled with the ongoing spat over the council prayer, there must surely be concerns now that this council is too easily distracted by minor issues, at the expense of more significant issues facing our community

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