The Star: March 16, 2017

10 Thursday March 16 2017
Latest Christchurch news at www. .kiwi
The Star
News
Crowd funding
for public train No funding for Santa Parade
• By Tom Doudney
A GROUP is aiming to crowd
fund $1.8 million for a public train
service which would run between
Christchurch, Selwyn and North
Canterbury.
The Pledge Me page for Dash,
which has being shared on social
media, said it aimed to be the first
community-owned commuter rail
operation in the country.
It also said the project was “in
a race against a foreign buyer” for
Auckland Transport’s diesel ADK
trains, which were withdrawn from
service in 2014 following electrification
of the city’s rail network.
Dash’s plan would involve three
routes connecting the central city
with Lyttelton in the south, Rolleston,
Kirwee and Darfield in the
west, and Kaiapoi, Rangiora, Amberley
and Waipara in the north.
It promises to get passengers
from Rangiora to Moorhouse Ave
in 37 minutes and from Rolleston to
Moorhouse Ave in 27 minutes.
In the city, it would use stations or
platforms at Moorhouse Ave, Addington,
Hornby, Papanui, Riccarton
and Woolston.
As of late afternoon yesterday,
53 people had pledged a combined
total of $5485.
• By Gabrielle Stuart
AFTER FAILING to get
funding from the city council,
Santa Parade organisers are
appealing to the public in a last
effort to save the parade.
The future of the parade has
been in jeopardy after the city
council cut funding of the event
last year to $60,000, down from
$85,000 the year before.
It costs about $200,000 each
year to run the parade.
The city council planned to
include funding for the parade
in its Annual Plan, but that fell
through.
That means the organisers will
have to compete for a city council
contestable funding grant,
and any funding they get may
not arrive until November.
But they can only afford to
pay the bills until May, because
their fund reserves were used
covering the shortfall for last
year’s parade.
The bills add up to about
$15,000 per month, which
includes the rent of the float
storage warehouse, insurance
and maintenance.
If they cannot get funding
before the money runs out, the
AT RISK: In spite of the success of previous Santa Parades,
the annual event is now in jeopardy because of funding
problems.
PHOTO: GILBERT WEALLEANS
organisers may be forced to sell
the floats.
Christchurch Santa Parade
Trust chairwoman Anne Jamieson
said she did not want to
have to appeal to the public, but
she felt the trust had no other
option.
She said the Santa Parade had
been held for 70 years, and she
did not want to see it fall over.
“It’s one of the few Canterbury
events which is held for the kids,
so this is all about them,” she
said.
She said she had been told in
meetings with city council staff
last year they were working to
have funding set aside in the
Annual Plan, so she was taken
by surprise when she was told in
January that would not happen.
But the city council says it
never promised to set aside the
funding.
Mayor Lianne Dalziel told The
Star in December she was looking
at including funding for the
parade in the Annual Plan.
“We are not abandoning
the Santa Parade and we will
certainly make sure this popular
Christchurch event doesn’t fall
over,” she said at the time.
She was not available to
answer questions from The Star
yesterday.
But city council head of
recreation and sports, John
Filsell, said he could “absolutely
categorically” say no promise
was made.
He said the city council
wanted to support the parade,
but could not give out funding
of any sort before June, because
it was legally required to stick to
its budgets.
He said he was working with
the parade organisers to look at
ways they could help in other
ways, like storage.
A Givealittle page appealing
for money for the parade is set
to be launched on Friday.
•HAVE YOUR SAY: Do
you think the Santa Parade
should be given ratepayer
funding? Why or why not?
Email your thoughts to
gabrielle.stuart@starmedia.
kiwi