Friday, October 12, 2012 • Marino Harker-Smith
A QUARTER-century tradition has ended. There will be no more town clock celebrations on New Year’s Eve.
Issues of intoxicated young people, declining numbers and violence are some of the reasons councillors have called for an end to the celebration that some Gisborne District councillors previously described as “past its use-by date”.
It was decided by the community development committee this week to reallocate $34,845 budgeted for the clock party to new youth and family-targeted events.
About $20,000 was approved by the committee for alternative celebrations, including $15,000 for a youth event and $5000 to possibly contribute to Fire in the Sky on January 1.
The decision ends more than 25 years of the council-funded celebration at the clock and some of the New Year’s Eve budget will be applied to minimal security to deter revellers from starting their own party there.
Council senior economic development officer Phil Wauchop said they would work with the police to minimise potential disorder.
“We know some people might try to congregate there but we will have to get them to move on,” he said.
The increasing popularity of the Rhythm and Vines Festival had taken a lot of people out of the equation but some efforts would be directed at collective promotion of the hospitality industry’s New Year’s Eve entertainment to provide for those not going to the festival, said Mr Wauchop.
Councillors Manu Caddie and Rehette Stoltz agreed on the need for an event held in a controlled environment that could be easily managed and provide an activity for teenagers on the night.
“If we do nothing, we risk people turning up in town, rioting and making a mess,” said Mrs Stoltz.
“I think the age groups we are aiming for will probably have relatively innocent celebrations and I’m all for it.”
No details were given on what form the youth event would take but in response to a question from the committee, Mr Wauchop said the War Memorial Theatre and Army Hall were potential venues.
He anticipated catering for about 1000 people at each of the events, with the youth event possibly flowing on from a family event in the early evening — if this was what the committee decided.
“The under-12 numbers could be large, depending on how the day is, but potentially it has a lot of appeal for families to come out earlier in the evening.”
Alan Davidson was “completely opposed” to ratepayer funds being used for this kind of entertainment.
It had never originally been the case for council to fund these things and had slipped into their budget in recent years, he said.