Masterton's Hosking Garden has always held a dear place in Susan Edmonds' heart.
The Masterton resident, who remembers running around the Queen Elizabeth Park garden's columns as a little girl and who last month had her wedding day photographs taken there, hopes councillors will this afternoon vote to retain the garden.
"I've
lived here, on and off, all of my life - I've seen everything been relocated and torn down.
"As a child I used to run around the garden. It's always been around. My mum's friend used to swim in it when it was a baths too, and she always tells us how good it used to be.
On the day she was married to long-time partner Sean Edmonds, Mrs Edmonds chose the gardens as the place to have her after-ceremony photographs taken.
Although "a few inches of water" stopped the husband and bride from having the pictures taken inside the garden, they could still be photographed at the side of it and behind it.
"I always wanted to have our pictures taken inside the garden, but October was quite a wet month, and I didn't want to get my dress dirty."
Although she liked what recent additions the council had made to the park, she was staunchly against the garden's removal.
"I look at the garden and think it's always really well planted. It mustn't be that hard to maintain.
"And I don't think it's ugly - it's unique, and part of Masterton's heritage."
She said hearing about the debate, which she thought had been put to rest two years ago, was "like déjà vu".
"I really hope that they decide to keep it - and then hopefully that'll be the last thing we hear about it."
That sentiment was shared by Allen Pugh, whose late father, former Queen Elizabeth Park superintendent Colin Pugh, designed and built the garden in the 1960s.
"Dad put a lot of work into it over the years, a lot of it after hours, too. One of Dad's dying wishes was for it to stay - and Mum and I would like to see it stay too, although we've now come to the decision that if it goes, it goes."
Graham Gibson, who has also had much involvement in maintaining the garden, also wants the garden kept.
"It's historic and it looks beautiful at the moment. I think, why take away something like that?"
