The public is being asked to help decide the fate of a historical Ravensbourne monument some have called an eyesore.
Ravensbourne's Moller Park Memorial Arch was built in 1937 to recognise the achievements of West Harbour mayor, councillor and Otago Harbour Board member Hagbarth Ernest Moller.
The need for $16,000 worth of repairs and concerns the monument causes a safety hazard for people exiting Moller Park on to State Highway 88 has sparked questions over whether it should be kept and the Dunedin City Council is now asking for views from the public.
The results from the questionnaire will be presented to the council's community and environment committee next year along with a stability report.
Community board deputy chairman Trevor Johnson, who supports demolishing the memorial and erecting the plaque, encouraged people on both sides of the debate to make their views known.
Successive councils had neglected the monument, and a decision was needed now on whether it was worth spending money to repair it, Mr Johnson said.
While some readers had questioned the aesthetics of the memorial - with one Otago Daily Times reader calling it ''ugly'' - that was not Mr Johnson's concern.
''It's just always been there. I've never really thought of it as beautiful or ugly,'' he said.
He was instead worried about the cost of repair and safety issues, but accepted there were some who felt the monument was a piece of history which should be kept.
Mr Johnson said someone had taken the bronze plaque from the memorial earlier this year and stashed it next to it, perhaps intending to sell it for scrap metal.
He picked it up after he was told by a member of the public and it was now in storage pending the decision on the monument's future.
The closing date for responses to the questionnaire is 4pm on December 14.
