Love locks on to memorial

Love locks have begun appearing on Memorial Tower on Durie Hill PHOTO/ BEVAN CONLEY

As the world's civic structures buckle under the weight of love, the love lock appears to have made it to Wanganui.

The phenomenon has become popular worldwide over the past decade but not without controversy.

A love lock is a padlock with the names, usually of two lovers, inscribed on it and then locked on to bridges or other public places. The key is then thrown away, symbolising everlasting love.

Twenty-four love locks have been attached to the metal grating the top Memorial Tower on Durie Hill. It's not clear when the first lock was put there but the earliest visible date is early last year, with the most recent in the last few weeks.

Paris has become famous for its love locks with hundreds of thousands locked on to bridges around the city.

Closer to home, love locks also began popping up in Wellington on a waterfront footbridge near Frank Kitts Park.

But love locks have not always won the hearts of authorities around the world and are regularly removed due to safety and aesthetic concerns.

This month the National Capital Authority began removing love locks from a Canberra bridge, citing risk to the integrity of the bridge due to the weight of the locks and metal corrosion.

In 2007 Rome mayor Walter Veltroni introduced fines for those leaving love locks on Ponte Milvio. The same thing happened in Florence, where thousands of locks were removed from the Ponte Vecchio bridge.

One of the world's most famous love lock sites is on the Pont des Arts in Paris which is said to have 700,000 locks on it. Last year part of the parapet of the bridge collapsed under the weight of the locks.