A number of people have been arrested after members of Destiny Church gathered at Gisborne's CBD rainbow pedestrian crossing again on Wednesday afternoon.
Church leader Brian Tamaki earlier hit out at Gisborne District Council's repainting of the pedestrian crossing on Tuesday night.
"We will be installing our own version of Easter roadway art, free of charge to the ratepayers, over the top of the rainbow crossing," Tamaki said in a statement.
He said church members would be "taking further protest action" at the crossing at 4pm.
Church members were met by a heavy police presence on Wednesday at the crossing when they returned with a plan to repaint it with "roadway art".
It was a relatively calm and peaceful protest to start with, until the arrests began.
On Monday night, Tamaki's followers painted over the rainbow crossing in Gisborne's CBD with white paint.
Mayor Rehette Stoltz said in response that reinstating the rainbow crossing would be done "as quickly as we can".
Tamaki told his followers in a Facebook video it was "amazing" what they'd done.
By Wednesday morning, the council had already repainted the crossing in rainbow colours.
"I've never seen a council take action so quickly. If only potholes and roads that quick [sic]," Tamaki said in his statement.
The rainbow-painted crossing "causes great confusion for pedestrians and drivers," Tamaki said.
Tamaki also questioned the priorities of councils.
"Ratepayers do not want to be paying for all of this rainbow-washing. That includes drag queen storytimes, rainbow crossings, rainbow street flags, rainbows on police cars and more," his statement read.
"It's clear NZTA is bullied and buckled by the woke rainbow movement," he added.
More to come.
