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“Roundabout Resolved by Roundabout Route”

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Description: This image was published in the October 1st, 1978, edition of the Tribune weekly newspaper with the caption: “Mrs Tostevin and Mrs Mitchell with the contentious roundabout”

The short article read: “Sixty-two signatures in three days - and a petition to oppose a 44-signature petition by other people in the neighbourhood. That's what happened in the Liverpool-Birmingham streets area of Palmerston North just before the last Palmerston North City Council meeting.

The first petition (the smaller of the two), called for the removal of the temporary roundabout at the intersection of the two streets and its replacement with cheaper Give Way signs. The bigger petition wanted the roundabout to stay. And the council agreed in favour of the second petition, against the earlier recommendation of its engineers committee. The recommendation was made on the basis of what the first petitioners wanted.

The organiser of the counter petition, Mrs Catherine Mitchell, told the "Tribune" that 'her petitioners reckoned that lives were more important than a few dollars on their rate bills, and rustled up the counter-petition in three days. The petition, with an accompanying letter, was finished just in time for the council's last meeting.

What annoyed her and the people who signed the counter-petition was that the first protest came from residents who don't even live that close to the intersection - most of them came from Tabak and Hollows Crescents, she said. The temporary roundabout is made of moveable concrete blocks, and has been in place for about a month. The counter-petitoners [sic] want a permanent roundabout because some of the blocks have been dislodged by passing vehicles.

Mrs Merle Tostevin told the "Tribune" that someone had also rearranged the concrete blocks the other night so that cars could drive straight through the intersection. Mrs Mitchell said she was ‘absolutely thrilled’ when the roundabout was built, and then annoyed about the actions of the man who organised the first petition. ‘What really got my dander up was that а minority was speaking on behalf of the silent majority. I was sick of being the silent majority,’ she said.”

This image forms part of the Manawatū Evening Standard Negative Collection. Unfortunately, only negatives between April and December 1978 are held.