Money for neighbourhood barbecues still on city council agenda

Calls during the previous local body election to cut funding for neighbourhood barbecues from Christchurch City Council’s budget appear to have been ignored once again.

In the lead up to last year’s elections, mayoral candidate Darryll Park campaigned on a platform of zero per cent rate rises.

Park said he would need to cut $100 million over three years from the city council budget to achieve the goal.

When pressed on how he would do this, Park said he would look at cutting community funding, such as neighbourhood barbecues.

This sparked public backlash and was ridiculed by Mayor Lianne Dalziel.

However, former community board member John Stringer agreed with Park.

“Providing people with a piece of bread and a cold sausage is not core council knitting,” he said.

This did not stop the city council’s seven community boards allocating $25,718.25 into neighbourhood barbecues across the city and Banks Peninsula during the election campaign.

In the end, slightly less was paid out due to some events earlier this year not going ahead due to the Covid-19 lockodwn.

This year a further $24,631.24 has been allocated towards barbecues across the city council’s jurisdiction.