Santa Claus faces pause without funding

guarantee of $15,000 from the Nelson City Council.

Wilson told the council’s long term plan hearings on Tuesday that the trust used most of its reserve funding to cover a shortfall after the council declined its funding application in 2016, and again last year, when the council granted the trust $10,000.

‘‘Nelson Santa Trust now has only enough funds to cover the trust’s overheads, of land lease and insurance et cetera,’’ he said.

Wilson said the parade was an important community event, especially for young families, but improving it and generating more community involvement could only happen with council funding.

‘‘We do think this event could be a lot better, but we’ve been restricted until we have a base fund,’’ he said.

‘‘The issue has been a lack of funding for us to try to expand the programme, to build more floats and get involvement from the community.

‘‘If we don’t have a buy-in from the council, I think that’s a big issue, but there’s still a lot of enjoyment in the parade.

‘‘Young children really look forward to Santa coming to town, and the parade does bring a great number of people into central Nelson.’’

Councillor Matt Lawrey said he thought $15,000 didn’t seem like a lot to ask for when considering the overall council budget, but asked as ‘‘devil’s advocate’’ if it might be time to retire the event.

‘‘If local businesses don’t want to support the parade the way they once did, and if it’s proving difficult to get community engagement to help make the event happen, is there an argument to say that perhaps its time has passed?’’ Lawrey asked.

Nelson Santa Trust committee member Mike Ballard admitted it was ‘‘a very good argument’’ which the committee had considered.

‘‘We feel that for the sake of the small children, they love Santa, we want to carry on and do the parade; but simply without the money we can’t do it,’’ he said.

Eagle, 1,355 tons, unload fish, MCQN; Voyager P, 321 tons, unload fish, CB; Taudre, 224 tons, berth only, CB; Amaltal Explorer, 1,386 tons, unload fish, load bunkers, Amatal; Sea Ranger, 334 tons, berth only, Slip Jetty; Captain MJ Souza, 1,468 tons, berth only, Amatal; Aleksey Slobodchikov, 4,407 tons, unload fish, load bunkers, LU2; Seaworker, 344 tons, Equi; Professor MAlexsandrov, 4,407 tons, unload fish, load bunkers, LU1; Harmony N, 28,592 tons, containers, MWS; Cape Marin, 35,708 tons, containers, BQ; Te Raukura, 4,407 tons, unload fish, LU3.

Johannes Maersk, 30,166 tons, containers, MWS, Sunday; Cheryl Anne G, 154 tons, unload fish, Slip, Sunday; Kaiarahi, 22,160 tons, repairs only, MCQS, Monday; Trans Future 7, 60,401 tons, unload vehicles, load processed forestry, MWS, Monday; Spirit of Canterbury, 9,910 tons, containers, BQ, Monday; Valiant Ace, 59,022 tons, unload vehicles, BQ, Monday; La Solognaise, 24,725 tons, load logs, KQ, Tuesday; Bacchante, 88 tons, unload fish, MCQS, Tuesday; Dream Orchid, 41,662 tons, unload vehicles, load processed forestry, BQ, Wednesday; FPMC 19, 30,174 tons, unload petroleum, MWS, Wednesday; ANL Elanora, 18,327 tons, containers, BQ, Wednesday; Buffalo, 6,311 tons, unload cement, MWS, Thursday.