Blossom Festival organisers will be required to repay a $26,000 grant to the Central Otago District Council within the next month, after a request to keep the money had to be rejected yesterday. 

The event, the longest running community festival of its kind in New Zealand, was cancelled on September 8 due to Covid restrictions. 

Following a request from the Alexandra Blossom Festival Committee Inc. to use the money to off-set a $63,500 loss, the Vincent Community Board was presented with options to either allow this or require the funds be repaid to council.

Council staff pointed out to the community board, however, that to not require repayment would be in breach of council policy.   

Board chairperson Martin McPherson, Blossom Festival’s event manager

Board chairperson Martin McPherson, who is also the festival’s event manager, did not take part in the discussion due to possible conflicts of interest but deputy chair, Russell Garbutt, queried why the Board had been presented with the options if council policy precluded the second from being chosen. 

CODC Chief Executive Sanchia Jacobs responded that the item had been included on the meeting’s agenda due to the high level of community and board interest.

The grants policy requires funds to be returned if a project does not proceed.

This had been acknowledged in a letter to the Board from festival organisers following the event’s cancellation, which asked that the group keep the grant to minimise losses. 

They had intended to use the funds to cover “significant management and administration costs incurred during the year”.

CODC marketing and media manager Alison Mason recommended the Board decline the request, noting the group had a surplus of $176, 798 on its books. She acknowledged the current extremely challenging environment for holding events and said the group would have opportunity to return to council and apply for future funding.

Speaking during a public forum during the online meeting, festival committee treasurer, Nigel Smellie, said Covid-19 had “put a big spanner in the works” not only in forcing cancellation but in relation to other activity.

A small ‘community thank-you’ event planned for later in the year was among those activities now being reassessed. 

Contestable Funding A Challenge

The Board yesterday grappled with its first round of community grant applications under a new policy which makes the process contestable.

Aimed at opening up opportunities to a wider range of applicants, some board members felt that because some community groups had come to rely on the fund, the new policy made it difficult to balance that with financing new and one-off projects.

Reviews into the policy would be held in November, the meeting heard. Fourteen applications were considered and chairman Martin McPherson reminded the board there would be repercussions from their decisions which involved some “tough calls”.  

Among the successful applicants were the Galloway Hall Committee, Haehaeata Natural Heritage Trust, Salvation Army, Earnscleugh Community Society, Alexandra District Museum Inc., Alexandra and District Youth Trust, Keep Alexandra Clyde Beautiful, Shaky Bridge Reserve Group and the Alexandra Community Advice Network.