Regulation roadblocks fireworks shows
Public Guy Fawkes displays are fizzling out in Auckland because of ‘‘daunting’’ council bureaucracy, a fireworks advocate says.
However, Auckland Council insists safety is its top priority as several popular fireworks spectacles failed to go ahead this year.
Mourning the loss of the longrunning display at the Papakura Lions, spokesman Chris Lynch said he had difficulty navigating the council’s paperwork.
Lynch described its forms as ‘‘daunting’’ and that most people would give up applying to host a public fireworks display before they even started.
Lynch said the Lions, like other public display organisers, were forced to spend thousands on council-required safety plans such as crowd and traffic control, security, amenities and fencing.
However, Auckland Council events manager David Burt said public safety was its number one priority and it needed to ensure that all associated risks were appropriately mitigated.
Burt said the costs of hosting a public fireworks display were for ‘‘core requirements for the safety and comfort of those attending events, as well as that of members of public in the vicinity’’.
However, Lynch said the council’s requirements were prohibitive and contradictory.
‘‘On one hand council want people to stop using private fireworks and attend fireworks displays — but on the other hand they’re making it difficult for
‘‘Public safety is always our number one priority.’’ David Burt
people to put public displays on.’’ Papakura’s long-running ‘‘good-value-for-money’’ display had brought its dispersed population together ‘‘absolutely’’ helping foster sense of community, he said.
Deciding whether council would provide future ‘‘large scale’’ fireworks funding was up to the governing body, Burt said.
Just days before Guy Fawkes, another display, at central Auckland’s Western Springs Speedway, was cancelled by promoter Glen Mosen over perceived difficulties negotiating firework height limits with council.
On November 2 regional facilities Auckland said it had tried to accommodate Mosen’s Pyro Display height extension request after a five-metre extension above Western Springs’s usual 25-metre limit was granted.
Mosen said the contracted fireworks provider felt unable to meet the expectations within the restrictions that were imposed.