MOUNT MAUNGANUI MEETING ON $140,000 BRONZE PIGEON ENDS WITH RETIREE ESCORTED FROM HALL

A Tauranga City Council consultation on a bronze pigeon for the Maunganui Road shops ended forty minutes early on Tuesday night. A woman aged 74 had been asked to leave. She had called the council's placemaking officer "a wee shit" through the microphone.

The statue is budgeted at $140,000. Council documents call it "a nod to the birdlife of the Mount". It would stand outside the public toilets near the roundabout. Locals were given eleven days to respond. Three of those fell on Labour Weekend. The online form crashed on the fourth.

Shirley Pōhatu, 68, has lived on the Mount since the bach next door was still a bach. It is now somebody's retirement plan. She said she turned up expecting to talk about the roundabout. "Nobody asked for a pigeon. I've got pigeons. They shit on the Corolla. Now council wants one in bronze so it can do it permanently. On my rates."

The woman removed from the hall was Dawn Ferris of Pilot Bay. She told The Daily Yarn the trouble started when the officer called the pigeon "sustainable". "I asked him sustainable how. Does it eat itself. Then he said the word activation and something in me went." This reporter has sympathy. Gerald would have said the same thing, only shorter. My son's new girlfriend once called a pigeon on Marine Parade "iconic". That tells you who these consultations are for.

By the time the chairs were stacked, two people had asked whether the $140,000 could fix the footpath instead. One man brought a mock-up of the pigeon standing over Papamoa "for scale". The feedback box had gone missing. It turned up in the recycling bin. Staff said this was a coincidence.

STATEMENT FROM TAURANGA CITY COUNCIL

Council is aware of community concerns regarding the proposed Maunganui Road public art installation. It has been noted that the feedback period may have been perceived as brief by some members of the public. Feedback that was submitted has been received. Feedback that was not submitted has not been received. The consultation was conducted in line with established process. It is regrettable that established process was not better understood by attendees. It is further noted that the term "sustainable" referred to the materials and not the bird. A decision is expected in due course. Further engagement will follow at a time to be confirmed. Council thanks the community for its passion. The wellbeing of staff has been prioritised. The pigeon remains under consideration.