A council has been accused of encouraging criminal acts by considering removing a statue of Captain Cook that was targeted by vandals in the run-up to Australia Day.
Yarra City Council will vote on whether the statue, which was sawed off at the legs early on Thursday in inner-city Melbourne’s Edinburgh Gardens, should be removed. A councilor claims replacing it would be a ‘waste of money’.
However, a spokesperson for local residents said ‘giving in’ to vandals would only encourage such destructive behaviour.
“If you’re going to let vandals and criminals win, you might as well give up altogether,” Adam Promnitz, founder of the Yarra Residents Collective, told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Tuesday.
Yarra City Council is considering removing a statue of Captain Cook that was attacked by vandals in the run-up to Australia Day
While Mr Promnitz admitted there was a wide range of views in inner-city Melbourne on Australia Day, he said this was the wrong way to have a discussion about removing the 110-year-old statue.
“This is not the right way to do things,” he said.
‘You can’t just get your way by being destructive and antisocial and causing criminal damage.
“How can it be a good outcome for any body when it’s essentially a green light for vandals and criminals all over the world that we let you get away with what you want and you get what you want when you behave like this?”
Councilor Stephen Jolly said Monday that replacing the statue would be a waste of money.
“Even people who love Captain Cook, who love Australia Day, will see that fixing a statue that costs thousands of pounds to fix is not the most important thing to spend money on,” Cr Jolly told the Herald Sun.
‘Residents want better waste processing, more childcare, cheaper swimming pools.
“All of these things are a better way to spend the money than on a statue that we know for sure will be taken down again.”
Mr Promnitz agreed Yarra City Council had a “huge spending problem” and needed to focus on delivering better services, but accused them of being “very irrational”.
“Unfortunately, it’s a council that’s focused on the wrong things,” he said.
A spokesperson for local residents said removing the statue would give victory to vandals and criminals
‘It would be nice to see if the council and Stephen himself were as passionate about spending money on good things and not about spending money on four flagpoles outside the recycling center that hardly anyone visits.
“They spent $200,000 on a series of statues instead of building a playground. We have a park without a playground and as a result the playground has been removed.
“If they want to talk about spending money wisely, maybe they should take a look at themselves and what they’re doing right.”
As part of a $2 million facelift, Yarra City Council removed a popular children’s playground at Cambridge Street Reserve, in the eastern suburb of Collingwood.
Parents have condemned Yarra City Council over a $2 million park upgrade that saw a children’s playground replaced with an ‘uninviting’ swing (pictured), balance beam and climbing frame
A petition calling on the council to reverse the changes and reinstate the old playground quickly collected more than 600 signatures.
The council was also criticized for installing four flagpoles near the factory depot in Clifton Hill at a cost of almost $8,000.
Yarra Council has been contacted for comment.