Election 2019: Tauranga City Council candidates detail sign vandalism

Bodies cut out, heads cut off, scrawled obscenities, mowed-down hoardings and scrapes on a classic car.

These are just some of the ways candidates for Tauranga City Council have seen their advertisements vandalised in the lead-up to this year's local government elections.

Some candidates say it's frustrating and costly but part of the gig, while others say the attacks seem personal and targeted, and one puts it down to the antics of "drunken misfits".

Tauranga City councillor Steve Morris said more than $1000 of damage was done to his 1957 Morris Oxford classic car over the weekend.

The vehicle, which is sign-written to advertise Morris' campaign for re-election, was targeted while parked downtown in Mount Maunganui on Sunday.

Morris said he returned to the car and found a vandal had taken a rock and scraped both sides of the vehicle, leaving a line of bare metal across the car.

Weekends seemed the most common time for damage, according to a survey of candidates.

Of those that replied, several said many candidates had been helping each other out by reporting damage and even helping with repairs.

Waitsu Wu said some of her signs were being hit over and over. She felt the message it was sending was that she was not welcome.
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In one instance, her face was cut out and stuck over mayoral candidate Tenby Powell's face in one of his hoardings.

A sign on Cameron Rd was vandalised the day after it was erected. It was fixed and damaged again the following weekend.

She moved one from Devonport Rd because it was being damaged every weekend but it has been hit twice in two weeks in its new location.

"There is a lot of hatred around the community."

Powell said if he took a photo of every one of his signs that had been damaged, he would have enough to fill an album by now.

"Each day there is more damage to the signs."

Bernie Gillon said his signs had been flattened, slashed with knives, gored with beer bottles and destroyed by what appeared to be a vehicle.

"It is very frustrating. Unfortunately, we live in a time when too many people have no respect for others or their property."

Erika Harvey has had two signs graffitied with black markers. Someone cut her body out of another sign with a box cutter and a fourth sign was "completely cut off the posts".

It cost close to $200 to repair the damage.

"I'm funding this all on my own so it's upsetting to have to budget for vandalism costs as well."

Mayoral candidate Kelvin Clout said vandalism of election hoardings was "rife" in Tauranga.

He said it was an environmental issue as well as one of cost, wasted time and a lack of respect.

With most of it happening on Friday or Saturday nights, the perpetrators were "presumably drunken misfits having some 'fun' on their way home after a night out on the town."

Jim Sherlock said one driver mounted the kerb to take out his sign in Welcome Bay.

Peter Gregson said that while he found election signage "unsightly" it was still necessary as a way to build name recognition - one of the biggest hurdles for new candidates.

"There is some growing traction in digital media but again hard to cover the numbers of people that potentially you can have driving past a sign each day."

Matthew Gill said he installed his signs on steel posts, so damage had been "minimal".

He did not condone bullying but said if candidates could not handle it, politics might not be the career for them.

Buddy Mikaere and David Grindley both said they were using digital media instead of signs.

Hugh Robb said no one had vandalised his "stuff" because "the people love me".