Hospice festival thumbs-up

The South Canterbury Hospice Wine and Food Festival's new venue and quality of food safety have passed with flying colours.

Timaru District Council Building and Environmental Services manager Dave Armstrong said he was impressed with how Saturday's event at the Botanic Gardens had shaped up.

"We certainly, from the environmental health side of life, were very pleased. Food was of outstanding quality ... there was a high standard and a full range of food at each stall."

Mr Armstrong said a liquor inspector was pleased with the systems stallholders had in place.

Though the council has not yet met organisers of the fundraising event, Mr Armstrong said there would be no objections to the gardens being used as the venue for next year's event.

A bonus was that people did not have to drive to an out-of-town location, had used alternative transport and that throughout the day the car park had room for many more vehicles.

It was an impressive sight, he said, to see the lines of stallholders, in particular students from Aoraki Polytechnic, involved in the community event. HERALD STAFF

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