TARADALE ROUNDABOUT RENAMING DEBATE ENTERS THIRD MONTH, FOURTH NOMINEE, FIRST PUNCH-UP
Nobody can agree which local legend deserves it. Everyone agrees it shouldn't be Trev.
A proposal to rename a Taradale roundabout after a local legend has stalled into its third month. The community board is now on its fourth nominee and fielding what one member called "a concerning volume of letters in green pen".
The roundabout, on Gloucester Street, was meant to be named after the late Doreen Whittaker, who ran the Taradale Lotto shop for 34 years. Then someone nominated her brother-in-law Trev, who was not lovely, and things went sideways.
Long-time resident Marguerite Soper, 71, said the debate had "split the bowling club down the middle". "Half of us want Doreen. The other half want a bloke who coached the under-13s in 1986. I don't even remember him. Apparently he had a moustache."
A third faction, led by a man who lives on the roundabout itself, is pushing for it to be named after his dog Murray, who died in August. "Murray sat on that berm every morning for nine years," the man said. "More than Trev ever did."
Napier City Council confirmed the matter had been referred to a subcommittee. The subcommittee has not met because two members are in Hastings and won't cross over for it. A decision is expected "by autumn, possibly the autumn after."
The roundabout remains, for now, the roundabout. Someone has zip-tied a laminated photo of Murray to the give-way sign.
The roundabout, on Gloucester Street, was meant to be named after the late Doreen Whittaker, who ran the Taradale Lotto shop for 34 years. Then someone nominated her brother-in-law Trev, who was not lovely, and things went sideways.
Long-time resident Marguerite Soper, 71, said the debate had "split the bowling club down the middle". "Half of us want Doreen. The other half want a bloke who coached the under-13s in 1986. I don't even remember him. Apparently he had a moustache."
A third faction, led by a man who lives on the roundabout itself, is pushing for it to be named after his dog Murray, who died in August. "Murray sat on that berm every morning for nine years," the man said. "More than Trev ever did."
Napier City Council confirmed the matter had been referred to a subcommittee. The subcommittee has not met because two members are in Hastings and won't cross over for it. A decision is expected "by autumn, possibly the autumn after."
The roundabout remains, for now, the roundabout. Someone has zip-tied a laminated photo of Murray to the give-way sign.