'Woke nonsense!' Santa and his elves forced to wear seatbelts during Christmas parade after health and safety 'over-reach'
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GB NEWS
A beloved Christmas parade has descended into farce after a "woke" health and safety "over-reach" forced Father Christmas and his elves to wear seatbelts on board slow-moving festive floats.
The 77-year-old parade, in Christchurch, New Zealand, has been told to install the safety devices as part of a wide-ranging health and safety audit - but councillors are in uproar over the "nonsense" move.
The parade's director Jason Reekers said some floats will have to have seatbelts and safety bars installed to avert "fall risks" - including Santa's sleigh.
One councillor, Aaron Keown, said that while seatbelts made sense for performers on floats high off the ground, for low, slow-moving floats, it was a step too far.
The town's Christmas parade has descended into farce after the 'woke' health and safety 'over-reach'
CHRISTCHURCH CHRISTMAS SHOW PARADE
He said: "It seems to be a health and safety over-reach or as someone else put it, 'woke nonsense'.
"I haven't seen it before. Now, on some of the really large floats, where someone could have a particularly high risk of a fall or something, absolutely that makes sense that you'd do that.
"But if a float's two foot off the ground and you're doing 3km/h I don't think the risk is overly high - you don't have to have a seatbelt in your go-kart at home!"
Another councillor, Tim Scandrett, also laid into the changes, saying: "The irony is we can put buses on for people to get there, and there are no seatbelts on the buses, but for some strange reason you've got to now have seatbelts on floats."
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Father Christmas will have to wear a seatbelt at this year's show
CHRISTCHURCH CHRISTMAS SHOW PARADE
Scandrett, who has been involved in the parade for years, said the vehicles would not be "going more than 5km/h - if you were lucky".
But director Reekers has defended the "woke" measures - pointing to how he'd be held liable if an accident were to happen.
"These floats are 30, 40, 50 years old, and we've never had any problem and never had anybody fall off. But I also realise that today's a different world, everybody's... looking for a head to roll if there's an accident.
"I don't want it to be my head. So I'm going to comply with anything that I'm given."
Fortunately, the community has stepped up - a number of companies from nearby Canterbury have donated the safety gear, worth an estimated $5,000 (£2,300).
Other local lawmakers have voiced their opinions on the health and safety red tape - Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy said that, as far as he knew, there wouldn't be any seatbelts on floats in his city's parade on December 1.
"Why are they killing the parade?" Guppy asked. "We certainly know how to ruin fun!"
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