Agenda item

Councillor L. Fairbrass, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Community Services introduced the report. She said that Council was committed to supporting events in the district. However it was worth noting that hosting of events did have implications for resources committed to this. The Council incurred costs in supporting events, hence the need to put in place an appropriate policy for supporting events in Thanet.

The policy would ensure that the Council recouped its costs through a schedule of fees and charges. The policy also defined clear roles and responsibilities that were shared between the Council and events organisers.

Penny Button, Head of Safer Neighbourhoods highlighted the following key features of the proposed policy:

1.  New events categories which would include Enthusiast, Charity Regional Charity National, Commercial Community and Active Recreation;

2.  Events sizes which include small and major;

3.  New Event Journey;

4.  New agreements and evaluations;

5.  Reserving sites for up to three years;

6.  Application fee;

7.  A deposit;

8.  Memorandum of agreement;

9.  Permission to occupy Council land for events organisers;

10.  Designation of Council land into prime and non-prime for events and conditions for accessing these sites.

Members said that the report made good reading and that the policy being proposed incorporated components that provide a useful basis for supporting events in the district. There was a request from Members for the policy to acknowledge the presence of local charities in the categories set out in the new policy proposal. They also requested that Parish/Town Councils should be included the consultation process.

Some Members were concerned that the policy appeared to propose that Council recoup all its costs which would be a significant burden on some of the local charities. Other Members were concerned about the levels of fees and charges to be charged, as they were too high. They queried whether the fees and charges will be reviewed at the same time as other fees and charges for Council services. They suggested that it would have been helpful if the report gave some brief comments about the consultation feedback. Penny Button agreed to find out from Waste & Recycling Department how charges for waste collection bins were worked out.

Members said that the policy should be quite clear and inform event organisers the full costs of hosting events upfront before they hold these events. In response, Rob Kenyon, Director of Community Services thanked the Panel for their contributions and agreed to incorporate some of the comments from the meeting into future versions of the policy proposal. He said that the policy is meant to enable council to recover the additional costs for providing additional services and was not meant to make a profit. The charges will be provided upfront, with a full quote provided to events organisers in advance of hosting the event.

One Member queried the wording regarding events cancellations and re-imbursements. Officers agreed to make the wording clearer in an updated version of the policy document. Some Members were concerned that the proposals for fees and charges might lead to some events being unaffordable to host as the costs for hosting events would more than double for major events. Members noted that there had been an increase in events this year to which Rob Kenyon confirmed that this year had witnessed a 30% increase in the number of events in the district.

One Member suggested that there should be a liaison between the Council and Town Councils, so that when funding for events was allocated to organisers, the payments should then be made expeditiously to Thanet District Council. Another Member suggested that future reviews of events policy should use the number of events held in any one year as one of the criteria for determining the impact of the policy. Officers agreed to consider these suggestions.

Councillor Campbell proposed, Councillor Taylor-Smith seconded and Members agreed to propose the Events Policy to Cabinet, subject to the comments and suggestions made by the Panel.