THE Party Under the Stars has quickly become one of the most popular family events on the Orange calendar but even the thrill of fireworks and music to usher in the new year has not swayed council from its policy of reining in donations to events and organisations.
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The decision to reduce the city’s donation to a New Year’s Eve party that attracts thousands of families cannot have been easy, but councillors have said many times that community grants should be seen as seed money to help an organisation build towards self sufficiency.
That does not mean that every sporting club, cultural organisation or community event has to wean itself completely off the public purse, but it should be seen to rely less each year on ratepayers to fund its operation.
Because of its community appeal, particularly for families, the Party Under The Stars would have posed a real dilemma for councillors.
On the one hand they had an event that fills a huge gap in the social calendar of the city, an event if it were not for the generosity of the major sponsor would never have got off the ground, while on the other it has a policy of continually reassessing annual grants at a time when ratepayers are clamouring for more money to be spent on roads and other basic local government services.
The reduction in cash for the party this year was certainly substantial and its supporters might argue a more staged reduction would have been kinder, but the track record the event has been able to build with council support should put it in a position to attract secondary sponsors.
If those sponsors cannot be found, the Party Under The Stars deserves a funding re-think and breathing space to plan for 2017.
After all, it is a non-profit event with enormous public support which has managed to deliver the kind of New Year’s Eve previous efforts have fallen well short of.
