Perth Voice Interactive

MOTORSPORT in Perth’s CBD is up in the air after organisers were offered reduced funding by the city council.

The event had been known as Targa West since its inception in 2005, but this year’s has been organised by familiar faces under the monicker Tarmac West.

TW director Ross Tapper told Perth councillors at their November briefing the event faced skyrocketing road closure fees and rental for using public parking bays.

Parking bay fees have varied hugely in past years and are charged by City of Perth Parking, a semi-corporate entity running the City’s carparks.

TW had asked for $100,000 funding for the 2024 event in August and September, which would feature classic cars, a “city sprint”, and family activities in Langley Park and Forrest Place.

The council had previously granted Targa $80,000 – $140,000, but just $209,297 is left in its annual $1 million sponsorship budget with six new events vying for a slice.

The council’s sponsorship panel recommended sparing only $49,397 of the remaining cash for Tarmac West, considering factors such as crowd sizes.

Mr Tapper says they can’t afford to put it on with half the funding they’d requested. 

“Our options now are to discontinue with the City of Perth and move the event to another location and to keep running the rest of the four-day event,” he told the November 14 council briefing.

Expenses

“Or, have the funding increased to a level where we can cover the majority of our expenses, which we estimate to be around $150,000, and that’s just within the City of Perth’s part of the event.”

At the November 21 council meeting, councillors voted to go ahead with the sponsorship panel’s recommendation of $49,397, but were plaintive about not having more funds to spread around. 

Lord mayor Basil Zempilas said it was a “difficult balancing act” trying to meet expectations of the community and also fund a large variety of events.

Mr Zempilas said some applicants would be disappointed to get less funds than they’d asked for, but the number of requests were a vote of confidence in staging events in the city.

Mr Tapper says they won’t know for a while how the 2024 event will pan out. 

“Obviously, this isn’t the answer we were after from the City of Perth so now we need to work out what we can do,” Mr Tapper told the Voice.

“Running events isn’t easy or cheap, and in our case, it is a free event for the public to attend. 

“We now have three months after we receive the offered contract to sign it and to make alterations where we can. 

“The City of Perth provide events with financial support but then invoice events for the use of their property, in our case that is Murray Street Mall, Forrest Place, Langley Park, Terrace Road Car Park and any affected street parking. 

“We will not be signing a contract until we have a fixed price on these components, especially the Terrace Road car park.”

In previous years the price of using the bays in the Terrace Road car park has varied from $30,000 to $13,000.

“The alternative to receiving sponsorship is to cut back on expenses,” like advertising, but Mr Tapper had noted at the briefing that could hurt attendance.

“Hopefully an answer can be found in the next three months.”

Other events to miss out on funding included the Buddha’s Birthday and Multicultural Festival, St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, and a new fashion festival called Fashion West. 

Funding winners included the Strange Festival for $80,000, and the Chung Wah Association got $80,000 for its Chinese New Year Fair 2024.

by DAVID BELL