The Star: June 22, 2017

The Star 3
News
Latest Christchurch news at www.
.kiwi
Thursday June 22 2017
Drinking driver dobbed in by fellow motorist
• By Andrew King
A DRIVER four times the
legal drink-drive limit was
seen weaving all over a road
before crashing into a parked
vehicle in Redwood on
Monday.
The driver recorded
1080mcg/L. The legal limit is
250mcg/L.
A member of the public driving
behind the vehicle phoned
• By Gabrielle Stuart
THIS YEAR’S Santa Parade has
been saved after Mayor Lianne
Dalziel and city councillors
approved funding for it.
The parade organisers had
just one month left before they
ran out of money, as a funding
cut last year
forced them to
dip into their
reserves to pay
for the parade.
They made a
passionate plea
Pam Morris
to the city council
last month for
$100,000 to save
the parade.
On Tuesday, city councillors
approved a $35,000 grant for
this year’s parade, which would
be topped up by a $65,000 grant
from the city council major
events fund.
Christchurch Children’s
Christmas Parade Trust organiser
Pam Morris said it was a
great relief to know the parade
would not have to shut down.
“It’s a victory, because it
means we can actually get on
with organising the parade,” she
said.
The parade has been run in
Christchurch for more than 70
years, and she said she had been
very worried it would have to be
cancelled permanently.
police after they saw the motorist
driving erratically on Sawyers
Arms Rd at about 1.30pm.
They then followed the vehicle
to Queen Elizabeth II Dr.
The vehicle then clipped a
van parked on the side of the
road near St Bede’s College
before coming to a stop about
200m up the road at about
1.45pm.
Police arrived shortly after
the crash and arrested the
“If it wasn’t for The Star, we
would never have got this far,”
she said.
The Star has run a series of
articles highlighting the parade
funding problems, which
began when the city council
cut the parade funding at short
notice last year from $97,750 to
$69,000.
Until the funding cut, the
cost of the parade – about
$200,000 per year – had been
split between corporate and
private sponsorship and the
driver, who is in his 40s.
He was not injured in the
crash.
Senior Sergeant Stephan
McDaniel said it was
concerning that someone could
be that intoxicated at that time
of day and thought it was okay
to drive.
“This is why we have checkpoints
at all different times of
the day and this reinforces that
need. We want to thank the
city council. In December, Ms
Dalziel promised the city council
would not let the parade fall
over and said the city council
would look at including the
funding in this year’s Annual
Plan.
But in January, the parade
trustees were told in an email
that there had been “no commitment
so far” to set aside
funding for the parade, so it
would have to compete with
other events for funding.
The trust then turned to
person for reporting this to us
and taking the time to follow
the vehicle so we could catch up
with it quickly,” he said.
The driver has been charged
with excess breath alcohol and
will appear in the district court
on July 18.
The incident comes days after
The Star revealed last week
that drink-driving statistics in
Canterbury had almost halved
over the last decade.
Santa parade stays afloat
POPULAR:
City council
funding means
the annual
Christchurch
Santa Parade
will go ahead
this year.
PHOTO:
GILBERT
WEALLEANS
crowd-funding on Givealittle
and fundraising to pay their
bills, but they could not raise
enough to cover the shortfall.
But after the appeal to Ms
Dalziel and city councillors last
month, the Annual Plan was
changed to include funding for
the parade.
The parade costs include rent,
insurance, maintenance of floats
and costumes, traffic management
and running costs on the
day of the parade and a wage for
one paid organiser.
In Brief
MURDERER TO STAY IN JAIL
High-profile murderer Ziggy
Stardust Buckeridge, who
killed a 14-year-old girl in North
Canterbury 25 years ago, will stay
behind bars. Buckeridge, 55,
was declined parole after his
latest hearing. He was deemed
to pose a medium to high
risk of sexual and violent reoffending.
Buckeridge is serving
a life sentence for murdering
Rangiora teenager Julie Sands on
Anzac Day, April 25, 1992.
ACCIDENT VICTIM NAMED
The man killed in a Rolleston
workplace accident was 59-yearold
Dayal Parbhu Patel. Mr Patel
was killed after becoming trapped
under a beam at about 12.30pm
at Pegasus Engineering in the
Rolleston Izone Business Hub
on June 9. He died at the scene.
WorkSafe have been notified.
BID FOR STATE HOUSES
Three community housing
providers have been short-listed to
take over up to 2500 Housing New
Zealand properties and tenancies
in Shirley, Bryndwr and Riccarton.
The providers are Community
Futures Christchurch, Otautahi
Community Housing Consortium
and a third consortium
comprising Compass Housing
Services Co (NZ) Ltd, AMP
Capital Investors Ltd, and
Brookfield Financial Australia
Securities Ltd. Housing New
Zealand will continue to own and
manage up to 3300 properties in
Christchurch.
FUTURE OF EMPTY CHAIRS
The city council is investigating
options for where the 185 Empty
Chairs on the corner of Madras
and Cashel Sts could be moved to.
Artist Peter Majendie spoke to city
council’s social and community
development committee on Monday
about relocating the installation,
which commemorates the
people who died in the February
22, 2011, earthquake. Committee
members voted to look into other
sites. The current site is earmarked
for the new multi-purpose arena.
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