The fight to keep Kiama’s New Year’s Eve fireworks display is still up in the air with Kiama Council extending the deadline for corporate sponsorship and Councillors questioning whether there are extra funds from the old Kiama Tourism body that can be used.

Council is waiting to see if any expressions of interest will come from businesses as they try to find a solution with Destination Kiama and Kiama Business Network.

The iconic fireworks display will not go ahead unless external funding is secured after Council last month unanimously voted to pass the annual budget which did not include money for the New Year’s Eve event, which is likely to cost upwards of $90,000 to stage.

Kiama Business Network has pledged to match any sponsorship from its members up to $10,000 and will meet with representatives from Council and Destination Kiama next week to see what else can be done to help solve the funding shortfall.

The Network sent a survey to its members earlier this week asking how the annual fireworks display impacts their business, whether they would be interested in financially supporting it for as little as $500 and if they would want the organisation to match the funding up to $10,000.

The survey will run until close of business on Monday before Kiama Business Network president Cathryn Lyall meets Destination Kiama and Council officials.

“We’re looking for our members to respond to the survey,” Lyall said.

“We’ve had some responses with people saying they’ve got an interest in potentially putting some funds towards New Year’s Eve.

“Kiama Business Network have put a little flag in the sand to say we’ll match-fund all our members up to $10,000 and we will look from there to see whether we could do another 10 because it’s up to the members to choose where the money goes.”

Councillor Yasmin Tatrai raised two questions with notice at last Tuesday’s Council meeting, asking “Can Council confirm the allocation of funds to Tourism Kiama in 2017 to assist with its winding up?” and “Can Council request information from the Kiama Business Network as to whether these funds are still in a term deposit?”.

In her submission to Council before the meeting, Cr Tatrai said she had been informed that an amount “in the order of between $60,000 and $90,000” was allocated to the Kiama Business Chamber (now Kiama Business Network) for “tourism activities and promotions”.

Council CEO Jane Stroud was on leave this week and has indicated that there will be a “thorough investigation of the allocation of funding suggested by Councillor Tatrai” with a full reply to be made at Council’s August meeting.

Destination Kiama chair, Councillor Matt Brown is calling on Council to find out exactly how much money was transferred.

“Councillor Tatrai has asked an excellent question - Kiama Tourism, after receiving Kiama Council money up to $60,000, transferred up to that to the Business Chamber,” he said.

“My question is how much was transferred to the Kiama Business Chamber using ratepayers’ money.

“I’ve been contacted by a former executive of Kiama Tourism and the Kiama Business Chamber. She said to me that they allocated a substantial sum - maybe as much as $60,000 to the Business Chamber after Kiama Tourism was wound up and then became Destination Kiama.

“I was also told this money was then invested in a term deposit, sanctioned from other Business Chamber monies, to be used primarily for tourism activities, such as the fireworks.”

Cr Brown added that he was not aware about whether the money was spent or whether it was available to fund this year’s New Year’s Eve fireworks display.

“It will be so disappointing to so many if we can’t have our usual Sky Show this year.”

Mayor Cameron McDonald said Council needed to be careful with its finances.

“I think it's important to note that it was a financial decision, a unanimous decision of Council,” he said.

“We knew that it was a difficult decision. It was potentially not going to be a popular decision.

“But where we've got a budget deficit of $3 million, we really need to be looking at our finances very carefully.

“And that's where the decision wasn't for a cancellation, it was to go out and seek those expressions of interest. If the fireworks weren't to proceed this year, then we'll be looking at revisiting the fireworks next year.”