HOON HAY MAN FURIOUS PONSONBY CAT ELECTED MAYOR BEFORE HIS OWN COUNCIL FIXES THE BLOODY FOOTPATH

A ginger cat from Ponsonby has been elected unofficial mayor of the Auckland suburb via a Facebook poll, and Hoon Hay ratepayer Kev Marston reckons that's still more democratic than anything the Christchurch City Council has managed this decade.

The cat, named Mister Biscuits, secured 2,847 votes in a neighbourhood group poll that was meant to be about whether to add speed bumps. Locals up there apparently wrote him in, and the admin gave up and made it official.

Marston, 58, who's been waiting fourteen months for the council to reinstate a footpath outside his Hoon Hay Road property, said he'd seen the news on his daughter's phone and nearly put his mug through the wall. "A cat, mate. A bloody cat got elected in the time it's taken these clipboard munters to move one cone. And the cat's probably better at it."

A neighbour, Raewyn Coombes, said the whole street had been following the Ponsonby saga. "We're thinking of running our own poll. There's a labrador on Cashmere Road that'd walk it. Least he turns up."

A council spokesperson, asked whether Christchurch would consider a similar approach, said the council was "committed to existing democratic structures" and could not comment on the electability of animals. Pressed on the Hoon Hay footpath, they said it was "scheduled".

Mister Biscuits has not returned requests for comment, being a cat. Kev's footpath is still buggered.