Board wants money switched to tourism plan

The Geraldine Community Board is asking for money allocated to it for a strategic plan to be put towards a tourism plan instead.

Community board member Shaun Cleverley prepared a report for tomorrow’s community board meeting asking the Timaru District Council (TDC) if it can access $10,000 for a strategic tourism plan.

That money had been set aside for a general strategic plan for the district.

Cleverley said the wider the scope of a plan, the more it cost.

He said the community board decided the sum was too small to allocate to an all-encompassing strategic plan

However, the board believed funding a strategic plan for tourism in Geraldine was far more achievable than asking for extra money for a general plan, Cleverley said

‘‘We looked at quite a few different ways to make it work but it wasn’t going to happen.

‘‘We decided it would be better to allocate the funds to something that is of benefit to Geraldine.’’

Cleverley said the community board had three companies in mind to complete the strategic tourism plan if it was given the goahead.

‘‘Obviously I don’t want to speculate before it happens but the decision making will be pretty robust.’’

The report said the allocated money from the 2012 long-term plan only became available to the community board in July 2013, three months before their term ended.

As it was such a short period the outgoing board decided to leave the money for the incoming board to allocate.

The report outlined a number of stakeholders it believed would benefit from a tourism plan including Geraldine businesses, Aoraki Development Business and Tourism, Events Geraldine and Go Geraldine.