Theatre's name in limbo

Photo: NEIL DUDDY

DIFFERENT NAME: The Hawkins Theatre was named after former mayor and councillor George Hawkins. Last week the council passed a motion to rename the centre the Papakura Performing Arts Theatre.

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A surprise decision to rename Papakura's Hawkins Theatre has incensed theatre supporters, including mayor Calum Penrose.

Papakura District Council last week voted to rename the theatre the Papakura Performing Arts Theatre. The theatre’s foyer will become the Hawkins Foyer.

Councillor Owen Pringle moved the motion, telling the council having Papakura in the centre’s name will help to make the district an entertainment destination and protect its identity when it becomes part of the supercity.

"This is not a political issue," he says.

"It has to do with a district I represent and I’m gravely concerned about what’s going to happen to it. It’s all about a loss of identity – we’re losing our identity fast."

The centre on Ray Small Drive was built in 1989 and opened by the governor-general Sir Paul Reeves on July 14, 1990.

Manurewa MP George Hawkins was Papakura’s mayor at the time and he says he "got the idea" the district needed a performing arts hall so his council built one using money from the Auckland airport reserves.

A councillor for three years and Papakura mayor for seven, Mr Hawkins says it was probably the council’s idea to name the hall after him.

Until the Papakura Courier rang Mr Hawkins no one had told him that was about to change.

He says he’s not surprised.

"I think people who are elected can do anything and if that’s councillor Pringle’s legacy then so be it. There’s just nothing I can do about it."

But Mr Penrose says the $20,000 name change will be hard for people to get their head around.

"It’s been the Hawkins Theatre for the good part of 19 years," he says.

"Are they going to call it the Papakura library instead of Sir Edmund Hillary library? Papakura Park instead of Massey Park?"

Former Auckland regional councillor and Papakura local June Hieatt isn’t impressed with the name change.

She says the Hawkins Theatre is known all over the region and locals were completely unaware of any move to change its name.

"That’s not democracy. It doesn’t belong to the council – it belongs to us, the ratepayers. Had we known we could have had a voice but we’ve been denied that.

"Are they going to do this right across the city? Are they going to rename Pullman Park?"

Papakura councillors voted five to two to change the centre’s name.

Mr Pringle and councillors Felicity Auva’a, Caroline Conroy, Peter Goldsmith and Mark O’Connor voted for the motion and Mr Penrose and councillor Peter Jones voted against.

Councillors Katrina Piggott and Brent Catchpole abstained from voting.

Mr Catchpole says he abstained because Mr Hawkins hadn’t been consulted.

"I felt he should have been consulted beforehand," he says.

A name with Papakura and Hawkins in the title would have been better, he says, because it would have acknowledged the theatre’s history and its location.

Mr Catchpole has lodged a notice of motion to either reverse the name change or for the matter to go out to public consultation.

The motion will be discussed at the next available council meeting, he says.

- © Fairfax NZ News