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trains, which were withdrawn from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