Art deco couple

Napier City Council is claiming civic interference following allegations Hastings district councillor Margaret Twigg was behind the recent attack on Art Deco organiser Peter Mooney.

Tuesday’s Hawke’s Bay Today front page story, “Good act costs a leg,” detailed how Mr. Mooney had fractured his lower leg after attempting to break up a fight between two women. Sources have identified Twigg as one of the women, with the other assailant rumoured to be an employee of Napier City Marketing.

The rumours have sparked a bitter standoff between the two cities and their respective architectural styles of Art Deco and Spanish Mission.

Napier mayor, Barbara Arnott, yesterday labelled councillor Twigg “Spanish Mission’s Tonya Harding”, and said she wasn’t surprised Hastings Council and its retail marketing wing were intent on sabotaging Napier’s flagship event. “The incident is simply a cowardly manifestation of Hastings’ inferiority complex,” Arnott said. “It’s understandable they would wish to spoil our signature event, given all they have to offer the country is a moth-eaten Blossom Parade.”

Yet today Hastings mayor, Lawrence Yule, stepped into the fray, dismissing the allegations as “Napier grandiosity.”

“Unfortunately it’s what we’ve come to expect from Napier folk, who believe the 1931 gift of land entitles them to some sort of God-given advantage over us here on the Heretaunga Plains,” Yule said. “Napier’s elected representatives are a little like their city’s art deco – purely decorative.

“And what would Napier know of tourism? The reason they chose a sister-city [Tomakomai] from Japan is because the two share the same penchant for marine mammal abuse.”

An Art Deco Trust spokesperson told BayBuzz public sparring between the two cities had cast a shadow over Napier’s finest hour. “We’ve had to bring in extra security for next weekend’s celebrations.”

Mark

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