Insert erection joke here

Till now we've resisted giving credence to a rumour which keeps reaching the LawsWatch secret cave (nowhere near just behind the water tower). It changes slightly each time we hear it, but in essence it suggests that a scheme more grandiose than Watchers dare imagine has been fermenting in the mind of Wanganui's greatest ever Civic Leader.

A plan which will forever change the face of Wanganui and - purely as a fortunate side-effect, we're sure - become a monument to its creator.

Then this crosses our desk yesterday. An announcement from Guyton Street that:

The next phase of the Wanganui District Council’s ambitious ‘Heart of Wanganui’ project is set to commence, with three or four costed options to be presented in the New Year for public comment and input. Mayor Michael Laws will outline some of the options tomorrow (Monday 28 November) at his 'Town Hall meeting' in the refurbished Council Chambers at 12 noon. That includes one not considered by the team of architects – but discussed at the recent meeting of the council’s Heart Working Party...

"We are taking an integrated approach to upgrading and expanding the cultural facilities at Queen’s Park. It makes sense to consider the library, museum, art gallery, War Memorial Hall and forecourt as one entity, and to plan accordingly," said Mr Laws...

"This is the project to launch Wanganui into the twenty-first century. Handled right, it will assure Wanganui of provincial prominence."

That uncannily echoes the content of the rumour - that public buildings such as the Sarjeant and perhaps the library and the others mentioned are to be considered "under-performing assets" - thus to be sold, or abandoned, or demolished, or perhaps rented out to store the miles of left-over red carpet after the River Queen "premiere" is over.

And in their place will rise some sort of cut-price, built-on-the-cheap Wanganui version of the Bilboa Guggenheim, Sydney Opera House, or perhaps Franco's tomb?

Dictator Franco's mausoleum and burial site (pictured right) was built by around 20,000 war and political prisoners who were enslaved to produce this bizarre construction, carved deep into a rocky mountain. A massive stone cross set on the top of the site makes it visible from miles away.

Construction spanned between 1937, even before the 1936-39 Civil War ended, and the 1950s. The site covers 120 hectares amid the Guadarrama mountain range.

The giant monument consists of a basilica carved out of rock, a 262-metre crypt, an esplanade of 30,600 square metres and topping it all off a 150-metre high cross 46 metres wide. No (other) 20th-century dictator has a state-financed monument to him in a country calling itself democratic. Not Mussolini, nor Hitler, nor Lenin, Stalin.

A modern-day Franco might not have a ready supply of prisoners of war, but could perhaps tap into the rich supply of fast-food litterers, gangs, people who have the temerity to attend council meetings etc...

Needless to say, we hope Watchers will pack today's meeting. We'll bring you a report as soon as we can, but a good turn-out will ensure that the public's interest in such a projct is clearly demonstrated.

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