Cantebury student leaders who have emailed every Dunedin city councillor seeking support for another Undie 500 rally can have no doubt about the answer.
‘‘If it is going to be anything like last time, they can p . . . off. And you can put that in the paper,'' Cr John Bezett said yesterday.
‘‘What part of no don't they understand?'' Cr Richard Walls told the Otago Daily Times in an email. ‘‘I say feed 'em peanuts and let 'em trash Christchurch.''
Earlier in the day, Cr Michael Guest told Newstalk ZB he had only two words in response to the email from Canterbury: ‘‘Sod off.''
Eight councillors spoken to yesterday said they would not respond to the March 6 email from University of Canterbury student president Michael Goldstein and Engineering Students Association (Ensoc) president Graeme Walker.
Only two councillors were more conciliatory.
Crs Dave Cull and Neil Collins said they had responded to Mr Goldstein and Mr Walker to say they appreciated organisers were trying to come up with constructive solutions to the problems around the Undie 500 weekend and their suggestions were worth further discussions.
The organisers' email, in a letter form, outlined suggestions to hold a concert on the Saturday night and hold the rally, which deteriorated into disorder last year and in 2006, on Saturday instead of Friday.
The organisers were concerned a letter from Mr Chin in February, which said the event was not welcome in Dunedin, was ‘‘problematic'' because some sort of event was likely to go ahead, sanctioned or not.
‘‘We believe that ignoring this problem will not stop the Saturday problems, and will lead to an underground and unsafe Undie 500, which will cause increased risk to students and the public on both Friday and Saturday.
‘‘We are open to all suggestions and comments on this issue. Safety and a constructive solution to this problem is in the best interests of all parties and we hope to continue discussions with you.''
Cr Cull said if the event was going to go ahead anyway, it was better to be constructively discussing options with the organisers rather than ‘‘standing around afterwards wringing our hands if it all goes wrong''.
Cr Chris Staynes said he was not sure the organisers could be trusted to, or were able to, control the events.
Mr Walker said yesterday he had received only two responses from councillors. He said he and Mr Goldstein had sent the letter to ‘‘test the waters''.
Ensoc had not yet made a final decision about an official Undie 500 event.
