Agenda item

The Committee considered the following report:

 

“1.0     Purpose of Report or Summary of main Issues

 

1.1       To update Committee on road closures and the cost to administer the scheme and to review the appropriate level of fees Belfast City Council may charge for road closures for special events.

 

2.0       Recommendations

 

2.1       Members are asked to consider the information presented and decide whether:

 

1.     To continue to keep under review for a further 6 months the costs and resources required; or

2.     To ask officers to bring forward proposals for revised fees to a future meeting.

 

 

3.0       Main report

 

            Key Issues

 

3.1       Committee will recall that, at your meeting in April 2018, you agreed the fees, classification of events and the newspapers that the Statutory Notice is published in for road closures.

 

3.2       Committee are reminded that they agreed to the following:

 

            Small local event:

 

3.3       The event is a small, local, neighbourhood event where people attending are not from outside the street (e.g. street party) or immediate neighbourhood. To be considered a ‘small event’ the event should meet the following criteria:

 

1.     It is held on minor residential roads (e.g. cul-de-sacs or side streets);

2.     The proposed road to be closed must not have a bus route along it;

3.     The proposed road to be closed must not have a car park located on it which is accessed via the road to be closed (other than a car park for residents of the road);

4.     The event must not be publicised for the general public and therefore will not draw in people from the wider area;

5.     The event should apply to residents of one or two streets only and not to larger areas of the district/borough/city. It is up to the Council to consider factors such as the proposed attendance figures, etc. when making its decision on whether to grant an Order.

6.     The event should finish by 11.00 pm and:

 

a)     Not have a stage built from which entertainment would be provided

b)     Not have amplified entertainment which may cause nuisance to the wider area

c)     Not have fireworks, pyrotechnics or bonfires on the street

d)     Not have alcohol or food sold at the event.

 

3.4       This list was not exhaustive and each application is considered on a case by case basis. The application cost is free.

 

 

            Large event:

 

3.5       If the event does not meet the above criteria, then the event is considered a large event. This includes all filming events. The application cost for a City centre event is £1000 and outside the City centre is £650. (City centre is defined using BMAP)

 

            Running, triathlon and cycling races:

 

3.6         1.  Commercial events or races that have a substantial impact on the road network or are within the City centre. The application cost is £1000; a reduced fee of £125 for events run by registered charities for fund raising purposes was agreed.

 

3.7         2.  Club runs or running races that have minor impact on the road network and are outside the City Centre in a small geographical area. These types of running races are generally organised by voluntary organisations and any profit made from them is used to fund the activities of the club. The application cost is free.

 

            Publication of a Legal Notice

 

3.8       It was agreed that City centre applications are advertised in either the Belfast Telegraph, Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland Edition), Irish News or Newsletter (Ulster Edition) on a rotational basis. Where a special event extends beyond the City centre to various areas of the City, such as the Belfast Marathon, then the Notice is also placed in one of the four main newspapers.

 

3.9       When the event is outside the City centre, the Notice is advertised in a local newspaper circulating in that area. This has proven to be problematic, in that some local newspapers are only published on a fortnightly basis and often applications for local events are received at short notice meaning that the advert has had to be placed in a main Newspaper, thus resulting in additional expenditure.

 

3.10     Where it has been possible applications for multiple road closures have been combined into one Notice to help reduce advertising costs.

 

3.11     Since June 2018, the Council has made 26 Orders for 34 events to close or restrict roads. Appendix 1 (attached) has details of the actual events and the cost for each Order. Below is a summary for the events as per the agreed classification.

 

·        Small event: 2

·        Large event (City centre): 10

·        Large event (Outside City centre): 8

·        Commercial runs including triathlon: 3

·        Commercial runs reduced fee (charity): 1

·        Club runs: 2

 

3.12     The following table shows an overview of the total income and expenditure related to processing 26 Road Closure Orders to date resulting in an additional cost to the Council of £14,263.58.

 

Fee Income	Notice cost	Officer cost	Expenditure	Deficit
£18,325.00	£20,562.68	£12,025.90	£32,588.58	-£14,263.58

 

            Review of fees

 

3.13     The current road closure fees were set at your meeting in April when Committee agreed that a review of the resources and costs associated with administering the Act would be undertaken after 6 months.

 

3.14     In processing the 26 applications we have recorded officer time spent on each application and the cost of the public Notice (which will vary for each application) to provide an accurate reflection of the cost of administering the scheme.

 

3.15     From those figures, we have worked out the average cost of processing each application as set out below compared with the fee the Council receives.

                 

 

Application Type	Ave. processing cost	Current fee
Large event (City centre)	£1,470.40	£1000
Large event (Outside centre)	£786.86	£650
Large running event	£2,598.95	£1000

 

 

3.16     Committee is asked to note the costs in comparison to fee income. In particular, the high cost of processing large running type events has been due to the complexity of the number of roads to be closed or restricted, which required large notices being placed in the newspapers.

 

3.17     Committee is asked to decide whether they wish to continue to keep under review, for a further period of time, the costs and resources required to administer Road Closures, or if you wish Officers to bring forward proposals for revised fees based on information gathered to date.

 

            Financial & Resource Implications

 

3.18     There are direct financial costs attached to the administration of the Act by the Council and, whilst fees have been set, the cost to administer the scheme is only partially recovered from applicants based on our information to date.

 

3.19     As more Road Closure applications are processed, the resources and costs associated with administering the Act will be regularly reviewed to ensure that any suggested adjustments to fees may be brought to Committee for further consideration.

 

3.20     Equality or Good Relations Implications/Rural Needs Assessment

 

            There are no equality or good relations issues associated with this report.”

 

            The Committee agreed, based upon the information which had been presented regarding the resources and costs associated with road closures, that officers would submit proposals for revised fees for special events to a future meeting.