CONDITIONS CONSISTENT WITH OPERATING SCHEDULE
The event is being organized by CN Events who have overall lead responsibility for promoting the four licensing objectives specified in the Licensing Act 2003.
The event is targeted at the residents of Cockermouth as well as the wider Cumbria region and tourists and food lovers nationwide. The main market for this event will be food and drink lovers and families, including all ages.
It is a ticketed event and access to the main site will not be restricted at all to pedestrians but they will have to show their tickets in order to gain entrance into specific festival activities. The main sections on Market Place and Main Street will be closed to vehicles.
It consists of exhibitors promoting the food and drink on offer throughout Cumbria. There will be both producers and bars and restaurants exhibiting alongside chef cookery demonstrations, activities for children and master classes. The event will include the service and consumption of alcohol on the proposed site (details are given in operating schedule). This will be supported by live music.
The Event Areas consists of Main Street, market Place and Memorial Gardens in Cockermouth and the festival will run between the hours of 10:30 - 18:30 on Saturday 29th September and 10:30-17:00 Sunday 30th September.
The risk assessed stewarding provision is set at 1x Event Director (Marie Whitehead) and 1x Event Manager (Anna Lyttle) 1 x site manager (Paul Dennis) 1x Event Control and Steward Manager (Joanna Farrer), 1x Health and Safety Officer (Alan Jackson), 5 X support staff will add additional support with a risk assessed provision of 10 Stewards and SIA licensed security officers.
Event Control will be located in Victoria Hall on High Sand Lane just off Main Street (see site plan)
A Steward Control will be located on Main Street.
The event area has been designed to make it so far as is reasonable, accessible to all. All crowd management and staff working the event have undergone DDA awareness training. The event organizer is aware of their responsibilities under the DDA legislation and has made provision by having stewards and security on site that are in full radio contact and will contact a member of the event management team where disabled access is needed. We have also installed one disabled toilet on site. A full brief will be given at the beginning of the event to ensure that no problems occur.
The Event Director Marie Whitehead, working alongside the event management team will work to ensure that all licensing objectives are met. Within CN Events this relies on a strong management structure with defined roles and responsibilities to ensure good communication between relevant agencies.
The event is timed to ensure full access to public transport. The organizer will liaise with local transport providers to ensure they are aware of the likelihood of additional demand and a Park and Ride service will be running both days. We are in the process of organizing a temporary taxi rank which all residents and visitors will be made aware of. This is because the normal taxi rank is situated on Main Street and will not be accessible.
A road closure letter will be circulated to local businesses and residents to make them aware of the festival and it will be advertised in the local press.
Prevention of Crime and Disorder is largely reliant upon good communication between relevant public agencies (Cumbria Police, Cumbria Fire and Rescue and Health and Safety Executive) and event sub-contractors including; stewarding and crowd management personnel, security staff.
In organizing the event CN Events will address the factors that are likely to lead visitors into crime and removing the opportunities for crime. All marquee structures will be securely fitted by professional contractors and a sign off certificate obtained. The safety and condition of the structures will be monitored throughout the weekend. This will minimize the opportunity for tampering and interference with physical property.
Each area will be manned by security staff from Friday evening until Monday morning during the time of the breakdown.
Provision of alcohol
A small number of stalls will be selling alcohol for consumption at home. Each of these stalls will apply for their own TENS and will be asked to operate a “challenge 25” policy.
As no alcohol will be sold for consumption on the licensed premises, we do not envisage it’s sale causing a problem however to ensure as many measures are taken as possible, at least two SIA security personnel will be present at all times to monitor Main Street, Memorial Gardens and Market Place.
The beer festival at Jennings will operate under it’s own licence and will have a full alcohol management plan and have no less than three SIA trained door supervisors.
Traffic Management
The main site of the festival is Main Street and Market Place. An application for road closure has been submitted and will entail closure of a section of Main Street and a section of Market Place. Thus Main Street and Market Place will be pedestrian only between Friday 28th September 11am and Sunday 30th September at midnight.
This traffic management plan was put in place with the principal objectives of; ensuring safe pedestrian road use and maintaining visibility for vehicles in the direct vicinity, and preventing traffic build up.
Traffic stewards will be present at the start of the diversion in order to monitor the volume of incoming vehicles and advise drivers of the most appropriate route when necessary.
Crowd Management
The nominated Health and Safety office will monitor crowd tendencies throughout the day with assistance from security and stewards. In the event of a surge in numbers visitors can be easily directed away from the site as it is completely open. .
All crowd management personnel will be trained to FSQ Level 2 or equivalent or as necessary in accordance with legislation. The organiser will instruct the stewards to monitor and report on crowd behaviour and where appropriate take action using SIA staff.
The nature of the activity means an identified occupant capacity cannot be enforced by Event Management and their staff.
Stewarding Roles
A register of all stewards on duty will be kept on site. All stewards will be experienced in working on events.
All security staff MUST be SIA registered.
General duties of steward
· To provide information to the public as to site layout and facilities
· To provide information to the public as to the running order/timings of activities
· To monitor and report on crowd densities
· To monitor and report on the general welfare of the crowd
· To assist the Police as directed
· To control access to restricted areas
· To assist in evacuation should it become necessary to do so
· To assist the emergency services as directed
Major Incident Response Procedure
Each marquee area will be subject to a small-scale event contingency plan. The decision to implement to the full-scale joint agency contingency plan is that of the Police/Fire/Ambulance depending on the nature of the emergency, and is covered in the assumption of control section
The general responsibilities of Event Management in responding to a major incident may be summarised as follows:
• To alert emergency services
• To manage the scene until emergency services arrive
• To provide accurate information to Emergency Services
• To liaise with the Emergency Services
• To assist in an emergency evacuation if called to under the direction of the Police.
• To continue to provide stewarding staff after the evacuation under the command of the Police.
If the site does reach its occupant capacity, or if public highway levels at which action is necessary. (This can be assessed by the methods outlined under the heading Ingress and in Crowd Management section), the Event Organiser after consulting the joint agencies should steward the identified points including road closures in order to support the police in the of control ingress/stop ingress to the site or part of it.
A full major incident or emergency plan can be found in section 4 of the event management plan.
General Public Safety Guidelines
This is an outdoor event with surrounding buildings and structures.
• Use of event infrastructure with valid fire safety certificates.
• Co-ordinate approach to planning with emergency services.
• Use of trained security and stewards, advised of location of firefighting equipment.
• Prohibition of the use of petrol generators
• LPG to be used in accordance with current guidance
• Power supply and distribution to be installed by qualified electrician only.
• All working personnel used on site to be briefed on fire evacuation policy to enable them to take a proactive approach,
The prevention of public nuisance is an important issue encroaching on multiple areas.
Noise
The main street is commercial / retail centred and as such the potential disruption to residents is minimised in terms of proximity to residential and other noise sensitive premises. Hours of operation are between 10:30 and 18:30 and will therefore not cause late night noise.
There will be performances of live music. These will not be amplified and will be kept to low enjoyable background music.
The marquee on Memorial gardens will house the local chef demonstrations. A PA will be in operation but sound levels will be kept to a minimum and will only be able to be heard within close proximity of the area.
Alcohol
Our method for controlling alcohol consumption at the festival has been outlined in the prevention of crime and disorder section. However it is important to mention this in relation to public nuisance. We foresee that the likelihood of any violence, disorder or policing problems arising if a licence were granted is not high as a result of alcohol consumption on site. This is due to the fact that no alcohol will be sold for consumption on Main Street, Market Place or Memorial Gardens.
The Beer festival at Jennings will be properly managed with an alcohol management plan in operation, SIA Door supervisors and it’s own TENS.
External structures
There will be no external lighting or flood lights or security lighting on the street since the streetlamp infrastructure is already in place and the event takes place through daylight hours.
Refuse
The festival will not put undue pressure on the existing infrastructure to deal with refuse as additional provision will be made to deal with rubbish/litter generated in a full waste management plan to be confirmed.
Local Awareness and Notification to the local residents
An A4 Public Notice will be placed in the surrounding area following submission of this licence application alerting residents and local businesses to the proposal festival in addition to information of the event to be carried by local media as well as a press notice being placed following submission of this licence.
Alongside this there is already growing local public awareness of the event which will and continue to grow.
• Leaflets will be used to supplement information for local community
• Local businesses will be contacted by a member of our team to discuss the festival, road closures and other relevant information
• The event will be managed by and experienced team with the help of stewards and security. Where necessary stewards and security will be used to disperse crowds at the end of the event.
• The event has been scheduled so as to allow access to public transport.
The CN Events team and security staff will be briefed by the CN Events event manager, Anna Lyttle, to pay special attention to lost children.
To protect children from harm separate facilities specifically for separated minors will be provided and staffed by experienced CRB checked staff in memorial gardens. Records of children reported as separated will be collated to ensure appropriate levels of support are maintained. All working personnel will be advised to the location of the facilties.
In respect to any potential physical harm that children might possibly be exposed to, each stall/hut holder is required to provide relevant food hygiene certificates and equipment inspection documentation prior to the event. This is a mandatory stipulation to participation. The design of the hut structure is such that small children are unable to reach any hazardous equipment.
A full child welfare policy will be in operation and can be found in the appendices of the event management plan.