Thousands donated to fix community garden

Hastings councillor Henare O'Keefe has expressed his gratitude to the Hawke's Bay community for their support after the pillaging of Te Aranga Marae community garden. Photo / File

The goodwill of Hawke's Bay people has sprung into action after Te Aranga community garden in Flaxmere was pillaged by vandals at the weekend.

Thousands of dollars have been donated to assist restoration efforts and Hastings councillor Henare O'Keefe said the outpouring of support had taken the sting out of the vandalism.

"There's a lot of goodwill out there but people don't know where to place it."

Mr O'Keefe arrived at the garden site on Monday morning to find the gate's chain had been cut and someone had driven around the grounds dumping rubbish, stealing produce and ruining gardening equipment.

The vandals had also ripped sprinkler heads from the garden's grounds; destroying a newly installed automatic sprinkler system that had been running for only two weeks.

Mr O'Keefe said he was very pleased to see donations of "unique proportions" flooding in after the word got out.

One person, who wished to remain anonymous, had donated $5000 to help fix the garden and others had donated seedlings, time, expertise and their sympathies, he said.

Work to restore the garden to its former glory had begun on Monday but was stalled yesterday by the wet weather.

But in the meantime Mr O'Keefe said it was business as usual and, like U-Turn Trust chief executive Ana Apatu, he challenged those who caused the vandalism to own up to what they had done.

"I'm not about punishment, I'm about rehabilitation and if we can give them a sense of ownership and pride that would be good.

"I would look at a long-term fix, not sticking a plaster on the issue."

Yesterday a police spokeswoman confirmed Hawke's Bay police were aware of the incident and were investigating the damage to the garden.

"It is always disappointing when property is senselessly damaged. When [the vandals are] located police will be seeking some restorative justice to enable those responsible to put things right by contributing to fixing their damage."

The spokeswoman said the vandalism was not believed to be linked to window damage in the Flaxmere Village shopping centre last month.