Red tape fails to tie our Santas down

Among the children thronging to greet Santa in Howick Village today will be some from families who sent in small donations, worried lest their parade be cancelled.

In the end Manukau City has come to the aid of Santa parades (four) and other Christmas events in its area, as councils do elsewhere.

But 2005 will be remembered as the year that the council's regulatory processes and the associated costs - and the time involved - almost got the better of some community-run Santa parades.

If you run a popular Santa parade - Howick has had one for about 35 years - you don't call an elderly chap at the North Pole. You see your local council.

If, like Howick, you attract more than 500 people (about 20,000 actually) you need:

* A resource consent ($4500 for Howick, including $2500 consultant's report).

* That consent may involve a noise report (not too many loud Ho-Ho-Ho's?) and/or environmental effects report.

* Any large structure like a marquee needs a building consent.

* And you need to comply with any environmental health requirements for foodstall holders, etc.

* Each parade requires a traffic management plan ($2000 to $3000).

* And a traffic control company to implement the plan.

* Make sure a contractor is formally signed to clean up properly.

* Don't forget the public liability insurance ($3 million for Howick).

Those are a few of the headline things, but there is more. Under the Howick health and safety plan Santa, for example, is not allowed to throw sweets to the children in Picton St. Children might rush out and risk injury. Sweets will be distributed before the parade goes through.

Nothing else is to be thrown from floats either - including balloons, water (no water pistols).

To be fair, most of the safety rules are commonsense.

You could have a blue "honour" line painted on the streets (like Auckland City) which children must stay behind. It worked really well last time Howick tried it.

But it cost $3000 for the short route. When the paint declined to fade as expected, it cost $6000 to take it off with waterblasting.

Jo Sykes, Howick Santa Parade manager for seven years, says the $30,000 annual event arouses "a sense of community spirit you can really feel" in Picton St on parade day. The floats and half a dozen bands and other groups come from across the community, from businesses to schools, church, sporting and other groups. People flock in from neighbouring areas.

Even so, something else will be missing in Howick this morning - food stalls run by fundraising groups (the only food stalls allowed last year). Jo Sykes says making sure they complied with the regulations was "just another job which increased the workload and costs".

Jo Sykes started organising today's parade for the Howick Children's Charitable Trust in April, especially seeking money which she says is increasingly hard to find. Even last month after the Manukau Council had given $7000 to each of its eight community boards, the Howick parade was still short.

Howick's community board neighbours, Pakuranga, Botany Downs and Clevedon, which has its own parade, chipped in with more.

The Howick parade is run through the Howick Children's Charitable Trust.

The Manukau City Council's extra assistance this year was an interim measure. The events manager for Manukau City, Paul Eagle, says the council is now reviewing events in the city. That includes looking at the regulatory and statutory requirements organisers face when planning an event in Manukau.