The Napier City Council has washed its hands of any responsibility for an incident in one of its sports grounds earlier this week, which saw two women being threatened with eviction from a cricket match by a security guard for kissing. McLean Park is a council-owned facility, but mayor Barbara Arnott says the park is managed by whoever is hiring it. On the day the incident took place, this was NZ Cricket. "We've got rules, obviously, in terms of the management of it, but we give it over to whoever is in charge on the day, and NZ Cricket is really the people who you should be talking to," she told GayNZ.com. Arnott says she is not concerned by the incident, and that she doesn't believe it will make gay and lesbian ratepayers feel unwelcome at a facility that is council-owned. "The fact that it's a council-owned facility is neither here nor there," she says. "People in Napier see all sorts of behaviours on the streets, and we're a very caring community. I don't think anyone's going to feel disenfranchised at all." Incidents occurring at council-owned facilities while they under the management of third parties do not reflect at all back on the council, she says. "People have got to take responsibility for their own actions."
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 12th January 2006 - 12:00pm