A small child was swept down Te Kuiti's main street with 1047 sheep at this year's Te Kuiti Muster, prompting a call for better barriers at the annual event.



Waitomo District Council was told of the incident at the 21st Running of the Sheep event celebrating the shearing capital of the world in Rora St, Te Kuiti, in April, by Cr Pat Hickey, who witnessed it.



"They had to pull out a little kid that was going down the road with the sheep," Cllr Hickey said.

The incident happened in the middle of the King Country town's main street where cars parked at the side of the road created a bottleneck which caused the crowds to go onto the road to get a closer look at the sheep.



"Little ones were pushed against the cars, kids were getting stuck behind the scrim barriers and the cars,"



Cr Hickey said. "You need a stronger screen of some sort because the children get stuck. We need more barriers for the safety of the little children who step out on the road."

Cr Phil Brodie had the solution. "Has Hamilton still got its concrete Hamilton 400 barriers?" The barriers have been sold to another race operator.



Waitomo district mayor Brian Hanna, who rode the street on a farm bike along with TV personality Te Radar, had not realised there had been any issues but thought the best option was more marshalls to keep the crowds off the road.



"The scrim is the only thing we can use," he said.



The first organiser Peter Bird heard of the incident was from the Waikato Times and he said he would be discussing it with the council.



He thought more marshals might be the answer next year.



''It is the children's parents responsibility, they should have kept them in a safe place. There are not supposed to be any cars there anyway.''



Chris Ryan, chief executive of the council, said: "In the good old days parents knew if a sheep ran into a six-year-old child it was going to cause damage."