Wanted: warmer welcome for Christchurch | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

Christchurch prides itself as the garden city, the city that shines? friendly, welcoming and growing in diversity.

But what do you get if you drive into Christchurch from the north, south or west? Stone cold "Christchurch" announces your arrival.

It's a far cry from other parts of New Zealand whose welcoming signs smile out at you.

Oamaru welcomes visitors to "Whitestone Waitaki", Dunedin has large blue and gold billboards with a white albatross and "Welcome to Dunedin". Wellington has earmarked $500,000 for a landmark sculpture or artwork marking the gateway into central Wellington to be completed in the next two years. So why doesn't Christchurch have something a little bit more appealing?

Mayor Garry Moore and his deputy Carole Evans agree our signs need an upgrade but when that will actually happen is anybody's guess.

Moore says the signs look revolting and adding "welcome to" would make a big difference. "I think anyone coming into Christchurch would be horrified because they look like you are coming into a prison." He says efforts by the council to improve their appearance had "died a slow natural death" but he is keen to raise the issue again.

Evans: "They could be far more creative and colourful and reflect the city, they just look like a grey blob." She said improvements would cost money, "but if you want a better image for the city, you need to make sure the entrance of our city is more welcoming. I'm sure we can do better."

Christchurch and Canterbury Marketing CEO Ian Bougen says he thinks the signs should be expressing Christchurch as the garden city. He thinks all the Christchurch signs, as well as at the Airport and Lyttelton Port, should be standardised and welcoming. "What would be good is to have an umbrella logo, for the whole city, that represents us all."

The Wizard says the signs do not have any character and need to be more creative.

"?something that is unique to Christchurch like a wizard or the Cathedral would be the best image to have. Something other than an ordinary sign. It could be livened up a bit." Dame Malvina Major had not noticed the "Christchurch" signs in her travels back and forth from her home in Darfield, but says Christchurch needs to be more welcoming to visitors.

"People know Christchurch as the 'Garden City', but we also want to be a vibrant, welcoming city that makes everyone feel welcome when they come here."

The signs had a price tag of $12,000 each and were put in place eight years ago, commissioned by the Christchurch City Council environmental services unit. There are three, on the Old West Coast Rd, at Templeton and on the Main North Rd. Council designers, a city planner and two landscape architects came up with the design.

CCC project manager John de Zwart says the design team wanted to avoid some of the tackiness that some towns greet visitors, which he says are "naffy". He said the structures were designed to reflect "quality" and "significance", as well as promoting Christchurch as "solid", "steady" and "substantial". "There was quite a bit of analysis done on exactly what the kind of message was that we wanted to send out," he said.

The original design was supposed to have surrounding flowerbeds, and one was to have an "avenue of kowhai". De Zwart regretted the poor up-keep of the signs.

"The signs remain and the landscaping has been vandalised and subsequently mowed over. Without landscaping we're not realising the full potential of them."