Designed to hold love locks – the engraved padlocks bearing lovers’ names which have caused havoc for bureaucrats the world over by destroying railing and bridges – the planned sculpture was ridiculed by Cr Bradbery in a passionate rant at Monday night’s meeting.

‘‘Love locks are about a clandestine activity, people who are passionate, who want to do something strange and out of the ordinary to express their passionate commitment to each other for eternity,’’ he said.

‘‘So you go to a place like the bridge in Paris, and you sneak up and put your lock on it and throw your keys over into the river. Not in some receptacle set aside by Paris council, nor by Wollongong City Council for that matter.

‘‘You put your love lock on and you hoick the keys over into the abyss. They’re not going to do it [at Flagstaff Hill] where it will land down on the rock platform for a jilted lover or a metal merchant to come by and collect.

‘‘No, you’ve got it wrong. It’s about something extraordinary, something wild, something passionate, so what does Wollongong council do? We take it on board, we turn it into something formal and we create a sculpture that’s going to cost us a hundred odd thousand dollars.’’

The sculpture – estimated to cost about $130,000 and planned for the lower car park on Flagstaff Hill – is part of a suite of solutions suggested by councillors Ann Martin, Leigh Colacino and Chris Connor in an effort to curb the damage done by love locks around the city.

Cr Bradbery agreed a sculpture might work at Sea Cliff Bridge and supported the use of chains at other sites, but said the installation of such a structure at Flagstaff Hill would be divisive, as there were many other community groups who had not been allowed to install memorials at the headland.

‘‘It won’t create love, it will create division, I can see the posses forming now, so councillors, love is not in the air,’’ he said.

Independent Vicki Curran said the sculpture should not go ahead due to heritage concerns, while Labor’s David Brown questioned the romance of Flagstaff Hill.

‘‘I’m not sure it will work,’’ he said.

‘‘You look south and you’ve got the wonderful romantic view of the crumbling industrial Illawarra, blast furnaces, coal loaders, ruined wave energy generators, dust, particulate petrochemicals.’’

‘‘It’s not a natural position for it.’’

But Cr Connor argued that he and the other councillors had carefully considered the ‘‘safety, aesthetics and the way it would fit into local environment’’ when proposing the key sculpture and said it might boost tourism at the already popular headland.

He suggested there might be an ‘‘enterprising business of selling locks at Flagstaff Hill’’, and said the region’s wedding photographers had been canvassed about the photographic potential of the planned sculpture.

‘‘Passion is in the air, on both sides of the argument,’’ he said. ‘‘But I’d like to see the community’s opinion in respect to Flagstaff Hill.’’

Councillors eventually voted 7-4 to ask the community for their opinions about the giant keys, with councillors Bradbery, Takacs, Curran and Petty voting against.

Councillors will also write to the NSW government for support for the Sea Cliff Bridge sculpture, and continue to install ‘‘love locks chains’’ for people to fasten their locks at other scenic spots along the coastline.