Decision on mural for Hamilton's council building delayed

A decision for a mural to be painted on the side of the council chambers has been delayed until Tuesday. Photo / Tom Rowland

Hamilton City Council has deferred a decision to allow a mural to be painted on the Municipal Building overlooking Garden Place until Maangai Māori iwi representatives can be consulted.

The Boon Street Arts Festival committee has offered to paint a mural on the east facing section of the building, during the Boon festival in March. The design for the mural will be discussed by the council behind closed doors.

The decision to move discussion to the community and services committee meeting will not affect having the mural painted during the festival.

Currently the eastern wall is used for internal billboard/banner advertising, however large banners are cost prohibitive, and demand for this space is low, a council staff report on the mural says.

There are no bookings for 2019 and the current billboard/banner is due to be removed on March 5.

HCC deputy chief executive Lance Vervoort said originally the matter would be discussed at last week's full council meeting, but asked councillors if they could push it back to this month's community and services committee meeting on February 19.

"The mayor pointed out to me our consultation with iwi won't be happening until next week, and council does not have the Maangai Māori sitting on it, but the community and services committee does," Mr Vervoort said.

"We thought it would be prudent to carry this over to the C&S meeting, so we can get feedback from the Maangai Māori, and that you get the full information when making a decision."

The staff report said the proposed art work would be "temporary". Murals, in general, have a limited lifespan of five to seven years, depending on environmental conditions and the use of the space.

The Municipal Building is scheduled to be repainted during Year 4 of the 10 Year Plan in 2021/22. If the mural was not painted over during the scheduled repaint, the cost to repaint over the mural at a later date would be about $12,000.