A Melbourne councillor is suggesting the city get its own rainbow crossing after a row over a seven-color painted street path in Sydney.

The first rainbow crossing was painted across a street in West Hollywood in Los Angeles for Pride month 2012.

Sydney got its own rainbow crossing for Mardi Gras in February and March but a row erupted after the state’s road’s minister Duncan Gay ordered its overnight removal, following safety concerns.

Now Labor councillor Simon Higgins is pushing for Sydney’s cultural rival Melbourne to get it’s own rainbow crossing in fashionable Smith Street in Collingwood.

‘The crossings will be a great symbol of the past and ongoing contribution of the LGBTI community to the City of Yarra [inner Melbourne],’ said Huggins, Herald Sun reports.

‘It is one of the key civil rights movements of the 20th and 21st century.’

Council officers will now be looking for a suitable location for the rainbow crossing in the city.

Huggins, who runs his own record label and a local music and arts festival, tweeted on 4 June that a friend had been ‘subject to abuse’. In the same tweet he said ‘Rainbow crossing a great reminder to speak out against homophobia’.