Ongoing funding for the Alexandra Blossom Festival should come through the Long Term Plan process rather than the Annual Plan, to give the committee more certainty moving forward.

The Vincent Community Board (VCB) recommended yesterday that the Central Otago District Council (CODC) revisit its grants policy, and this would give the blossom festival committee more surety with its annual event.

The discussion came about after a submission to the Annual Plan from Andrew Clark, who suggested the festival committee needed guidance on how to become more resilient, and not so reliant on major funders.

Event organiser and VCB member Martin McPherson said having to come back to the council every year for funding was not ideal, but he also invited Andrew to have a chat with him and see whether he might like to join the committee.

“At our AGM we failed to fill all the vacant positions,” he said.

Eleven out of the 149 submissions from the council’s Annual Plan process came from the Vincent ward, but the majority who want to speak will be at the hearing in council chambers today.

Martin also pointed out that in order for the festival to be affordable to the public, it received funding to be able to offer early bird discounts on tickets to the Alexandra community.

“We also distribute free tickets to various community support groups around the town. Last year we gave away between 2500-3000 tickets.”

Submitter Grant Campbell was the only one who addressed the VCB meeting, and his concerns were about the Riverside Park Trust project in lower Alexandra.

He encouraged the board to “push pause” on the project until other avenues of funding were found for the $3.2 million project.

The CODC has $650,000 approved in its Long Term Plan for this, and has secured an additional $625,000 in funding from the Tourism Infrastructure Fund, Central Lakes Trust and Lotteries.

Sixty submitters from across the district will speak at the Annual Plan hearing at council chambers in Alexandra today.

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