Issue - meetings

The purpose of this report is to draw members’ attention to the activities of the Safety Advisory Group for Events to date during 2012, to review the first year of operation of the Group and to deliver the Chair's Annual Report to Cabinet.

Councillor Roger Symonds in proposing the item, said it was important that event organisers must know what is required of them.  The SAGE group were making that possible.  He welcomed this, the first annual report.

Councillor Cherry Beath in seconding the proposal said that the report explained the value of the SAGE group.  The year just past had been an excellent year for the group to operate, because of the Jubilee celebrations and Olympic events.

Councillor Paul Crossley asked that Cabinet’s thanks be passed to Geoff Dicker (Senior Health and Safety Adviser) and the rest of the SAGE team.

On a motion from Councillor Roger Symonds, seconded by Councillor Paul Crossley, it was

RESOLVED (unanimously)

(1) To RECONFIRM s.101 of the Events Policy which states “If it is the collective view of the SAGE that the event should not go ahead then this will be communicated to the Public Protection Service Manager and Divisional Director of Environmental Services who will formally write to the event organiser. Each SAGE member retains the right to object to any event”; and

(2) To AMEND the Events Policy (November 2011) to include the following paragraph:

"6.2. The SAGE chair will have the discretion to determine which events are considered by the SAGE - based on risk. This decision will be dependent, amongst other things, on the nature of the event, location, participants and includes events which are likely to cause significant disruption to traffic and parking arrangements.  This risk based provision will be exercised following consultation with other members of the SAGE where necessary."