Seats at Te Awamutu Memorial Park
Update – Thursday June 4 – 5am
Brad Ward
Waipā District Council has removed one of seven 70-year-old park benches in Te Awamutu and Districts War Memorial Park with an angle grinder before the park’s independent maintenance committee could finish restoring it.
Community services manager Brad Ward said, in a statement, that the council found sharp pipes protruding from the ground at the park on Thursday.
“As the bench had been earmarked for replacement, the decision was made to remove the pipes that day,” he said.
“No permission had been sought to do any maintenance on the benches. We take any sort of vandalism or public interference of community assets seriously and are currently considering options.
“The health and safety of our community is always at the forefront of our minds, and we urge people to do the right thing to ensure the safety of everyone.”
Tuesday June 3 – 2pm
Waipā District Council has removed one of seven 70-year-old park benches in Te Awamutu and Districts War Memorial Park with an angle grinder before the park’s independent maintenance committee could finish restoring it.
Te Awamutu News 5 June 2025
The seat, installed by public subscription with the opening of the park in the early 1950s. was one of seven park maintenance committee members Marc Dawson and Peter Fletcher had spent $500 restoring in response to council plans to spend $58,000 replacing selected seating and rubbish bins in the park.
In last week’s lead story in The News council community services manager Brad Ward made it clear the plan to replace the 70-year-old benches would continue.
See: Take your seats
Dawson said he was disappointed and shocked to discover a council contractor removing the metal piping of the last seat with a battery powered angle grinder when he returned restored wooden slats to the bench for installation on Thursday.
He understood council community services manager Brad Ward had given the order to remove the seat on health and safety grounds.
Te Awamutu and Districts War Memorial Park historic seat restorers Marc Dawson, left, and Peter Fletcher with historic seat slats after the council removed metal tubing.
The committee had put cones around the piping to warn of tripping hazards.
Dawson has asked the council to rethink plans to invest in replacing selected seating and rubbish bins in the park, quoting the council’s reserve manual that allows the council to review and change its plans if the situation changes in the park.
“I have yet to get a response from my request for a review under the Waipā District Council Reserves Manual section 1.2.3,” Dawson said.
“The action of removing the seat frame seems doubly premature as it would be reasonable to expect a review response prior to the beginning of the next financial year for when removal and replacement was planned,” he said.
The removal of the seat left a concrete pad in the middle of the lawn which the committee has taped off to prevent people from tripping on it.
Dawson is a regular presenter in the public forum of the Te Awamutu-Kihikihi Community Board.
“I am disappointed, if that was a staff response,” said board chair Ange Holt.
Historic seat restorers Marc Dawson (seated) and Peter Fletcher have the support of Maria Blackwell and Bernard Westerbaan after restoring seven 70-year-old seats at Te Awamutu and Districts War Memorial Park. Photo: Chris Gardner
Holt had recently warned Dawson his work would be for nothing, as council staff had made up their mind after herself complaining staff did not listen to community feedback.
Ange Holt
“I fully understand that there is a process to be followed, and that Marc and Pete should not have done what they did, but they have made everything safe,” she said.
Holt said the outcomes of the council’s draft annual plan included community collaboration.
“For me I realise that’s a little bit hard to support, I suppose, if that’s how they are going to react.”
One of the objectives of the council’s draft financial strategy was achieving more together through partnerships and collaboration.
“From the community board perspective, I just found the lack flexibility frustrating. I feel we have a disconnect between the high-level plans and what is being delivered.”
Councillor Lou Brown, who sits on the community board with Bruce Thomas, was concerned to hear of the removal of the seat.
“I did not think we would get to this sort of stage,” he said. “We can’t have a them and us attitude. I think it’s very negative.”
Brown said he would be raising the situation with fellow councillors and staff.
Frames Taken from Te Awamutu Memorial Park seats.
