Angry, mad and sad is the reaction of pupils in room 2 at Oamaru North School to a proposal to demolish the aviaries in the Oamaru Gardens.
Three pupils - Patrick Bungard (10), Jasmine Peterson (9) and Lotu Fifita (9) - yesterday appeared before the council to put their class' views during consideration of submissions on its draft Waitaki reserve management plan.
The plan proposed demolishing the aviaries because they no longer met standards and would be costly to upgrade.
Yesterday, council recreation manager Erik van der Spek said the cost depended on what was built, but could be more than $250,000 for a walk-in aviary. Despite that, the pupils wanted the aviary to remain, many mentioning the pleasure they got from white sulphur-crested cockatoo Jimmy, who entertains visitors with his talking.
Pupil Stoney Baird would be disappointed if the birds were taken away, Lattrell Shelford sad and Tina Latavao ''very, very disappointed''. Lattrell described the birds as soft, fluffy and cuddly while Ben Hore liked to listen to them sing and watch them fly around. The children's views were supported by adults.
Oamaru resident Adele Middlemass said many people visited the gardens just to see the birds and particularly liked Jimmy.
Andrew Milne suggested building a smaller aviary for Jimmy and a small number of birds, while John Hellewell felt the aviary was ''a community treasure'' and the birds had become friends to many people. He proposed a group be formed to raise funding for a new aviary.
