Makeover for Christchurch gun store sign

A Christchurch gun store owner will change a controversial sign after pressure from the media and the mayor – to one calling the city New Zealand’s ‘‘gateway to hunting’’.

Gun City opened its second Christchurch store by the Sockburn roundabout in August, with a 45-square-metre sign of its logo impossible for citybound motorists to miss.

Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel told owner David Tipple it sent an ‘‘unintended message’’ about the city, referencing the March 15 terror attacks, at one of its major entry points.

After meeting with Dalziel, Tipple told Stuff the new sign would be a hunting mural of a mountain scene with a father and children.

The father would have a rifle over his back and the sign would read ‘Welcome to Christchurch City – the gateway to hunting in New Zealand’’.

‘‘It is a good solution for all parties,’’ he said.

The idea was finalised but photographs and design still had to be completed, Tipple said.

He expected the signage would be up in the next month.

Tipple said the meeting with the mayor went ‘‘very well’’. Dalziel said the sign was a ‘‘good compromise’’.

‘‘[I] am pleased to hear that he was already working on alternative signage with the focus on hunting and the great outdoors.’’

Gun City’s Sockburn store development, which was not publicly notified, prompted complaints from nearby residents but council staff at the time said the Resource Management Act did not allow the council to regulate the activities.